Einfach Genial with Johanna
Johanna wanted to play something, so I offered Einfach Genial. I know she doesn't like abstracts, but instead prefers more imaginative, theme-rich games, but I thought this could work... and it did! It's not one of her favourites, but she enjoyed it.
Of course, Einfach Genial is far from the world of serious high-skill abstracts, and instead offers more dynamic play experience where luck has enough room to make it interesting even if the players are of different experience level and skill (there simply aren't that many skill levels in Einfach Genial).
I'm more and more convinced Einfach Genial is a classic game and one I'll be playing for years and years. It's just so simple and clean, a superbly elegant design. You can see it in the Geek: many people love the game and very few hate it; you either love the game or don't care much about it, but there's very little to hate about it.
Here's an interesting comment from the Geek, by the way: I simply don't like this genre, the "nearly chess" type tactical games. This one aditionally suffers from a high luck factor.
Isn't the luck factor the very thing that makes Einfach Genial something else than a Chess-like abstract? Einfach Genial must be one of the easiest and most accessible abstract games around.
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Everyone I've played it with have absolutely loved it. It's so simple and minimalistic that it almost feels like something other than a boardgame. People have commented how it contains these Game of Life -type of situations and how beautiful the board sometimes becomes. Also it's way different depending on how many players are playing and I think it's one of the most approachable games in a way, since it's very easy to figure it out without getting any hints from a more experienced player. After couple of games, you realize that some colours will die out and you can view the opponent's scoreboard to see where he's probably going or what he's trying to do.