Apr
27
Gametimer
Filed Under News | Leave a Comment
Have you ever encountered a situation where someone is suffering from AP. Maybe it has happened to you and others have been frustrated. This is where timer are handy; every player gets a limited time to do the moves. Chess players use timers regularly but we Eurogamers tend to just be silent and watch.
Zumba tailored a timer for these situations and it looks pretty neat. From this point forward I’ll have my laptop next to game table whenever there’s games which may cause AP. I recommend you to chech out Zumba’s Gametimer.
Apr
19
Dungeon Twister
Filed Under Dungeon Twister, Session | Leave a Comment
I had the honor of hosting a game night at my place after a longish pause. I had plans of hosting a group of people during the evening but eventually there were only me and Lauri. The obvious choise as a game for the kind of event we had was Dungeon Twister which I had just recently bought and neither had played it before.
Dungeon Twister is a rather harsh strategy game with a fantasy theme. There are fantasy characters running and fighting in a dungeon but, unlike most of the other dungeon games, there’s no dice or other random factors in the game (basically cards could be seen as random factors but either player has the same set of cards). This makes the game interesting but easily quite long and analytical in a bad way and, at least in this first game of our’s, we suffered a bit from this problem. DW is not a game for serious AP gamers because there’s many options to use the actions in a turn and usually there’s always one action missing to do what one would like to do.
Anyways, I liked the game and even the fact that the game lasted long did not matter while we were not in a particular rush to do anything. Game has cool components and theme and it offers some serious thinking which is not bad once in a while.
Apr
15
Games at the Nokia Board Game Club
Filed Under Schnäppchen Jagd, Scarto, I'm the Boss, King Me!, Session | Leave a Comment
I haven’t been able to participate in the N-BGC meetings in a while and it was nice to be there again. There were six of us and the first game was
King Me! which is a light bluffing game where players try to place their figures on the ladder right and kick the other characters out of the game. I was a late but with King Me! it didn’t really matter because the game is rather simple and I have to say that this is not a game which I’m eager to play several times. There’s interesting bluffing mechanic but game lasts a bit too long and is a bit repetitive.
The second game of the night was
I’m the Boss. In this game players are heads of influencal families which try to make deals and act together to buy shares and increase their wealth. It’s all about negotiation in first phase and then trying to play cards to mess up the deals other players are trying to make. Lots of interaction and back-stabbing is usually fun and it works well also in this game. Game began a bit slow but once we got the feel of the game the game went on smoothly.
Third game of the night was most of all confusing. I bought
Tarot decks after reading
From Tarot to Texas Holdem by Mikko Saari and was keen on trying some of the Tarot games in the book. Scarto seemed to be the easiest of the games although even with Scarto I had problems of figuring out how the points were ditributed to the players. Scarto is a Piamontese (Italian) trick taking Tarot game where players try to win points. Points were not the biggest problem for us - the cards and their suits were a lot more painful feature to understand. The suits are totally different compared to those in the French 52 cards deck and illustration on the cards didn’t make it so clear which card belong to which suit. But we tried the game and I’m sure I’ll find myself playing it again in the near future.
The last game of the night was
Schnäppchen Jagd, a trick taking game where players collect certain cards and receive points from them and try to avoid cards which they don’t collect. Players need to follow the suit or they can throw in any other card and claim it to be a trump. Other than that game is quite typical light trick taking game and it offers nothing special compared to many other similar
Apr
14
Game day the the Library 10
Filed Under Ticket to Ride, Wits and Wagers, Jamaica, Filou, Session | Leave a Comment
It has been really dry in the gaming front for several weeks and man it was great to play some games on Sunday at the Library 10. We had pre-scheduled a game of Jamaica and I decided go with the flow and take some lighter games with me in the library.
We began our session with
Felix: The Cat in the Sack which is an entertaining and fast auction game. The auction mechanic where information increases after players pass is interesting but still I feel that there isn’t that much new in the game that it would keep up the interest in longer term. I made some nice deals in the game and managed to pull off a victory.
The second game began when Janne arrived with
Jamaica. Jamaica is a racing game with pirate theme in which dice have a rather important role. Players are captains of their ships and try to be the first who manage to sail around the island on the game board. Every player has similar set of actions cards and dice are used to determine the movement of the quantity of goods players gets from the actions. Cards are drawn in players’ hand randomly and usually players don’t have the same cards in their hands. As in all great pirate games there’s also a lot of fighting in the game which increases the interaction in the game significantly. I like Jamaica although it isn’t the game I would like to play time after time. With the right people it can be really fun and what else can you expect from a game?
Third game of the day was
Wits and Wagers which I had been taken with me. Others had not been played the game before but with Wits and Wagers it doesn’t matter at all. We played the game with a variant where everyone reads the quetion in turns and the one who reads the question is the first to bet. I think this makes the game more gamer friendly but definitely also a bit longer. Our game was also the first where I ran into a situation where bank was out of money. But what else can you expect when the question is “How many symphonies did Beethoven compose?”? Who wouldn’t go all in with a question like this and this might indicate that the second edition rule which allows all in bets in every round is not the smartest after all.
The last game of the day was the tradional
Ticket to Ride. One newbe and couple of players who had only a few games experience (me included) was surprising I suppose with a game that is one of the most loved in the gaming circles. I tried hard to keep up the spirit and persuade people to harsh blocking without but everyone seemed to be more into relaxed and family friendly gaming.
I had nice time and I hope that I’ll be able to join the group also next Sunday.
Apr
14
LATAA - TÄSTÄ- LAUTAPELISUOMEN UUSIN JAKSO (.mp3)
Tässä jaksossa seuraavaa:
JOHDANTO
UUTISET
Uutisosiossa maininnat kahdesta lähitulevaisuudessa järjestettävästä pelitapahtumasta. Pelixi-tapahtumasta lisätiedot löytyvät täältä ja Suomen lautapeliseuran Jyväskylän peliviikonlopusta täältä.
LAUTAPELISUOMI KILPAILUN VOITTAJA
Lautapelisuomen neljännen kilpailun voittajat ovat Sampo Sikiö, Lauri Ström ja Miika Kirjavainen. Lautapelit.fi:n myymälässä oli myynnissä 964 peliä ja voittajat onnistuivat arvaamaan oikean luvun alle viidenkymmenen pelin tarkkuudella, mikä on oikein mainio suoritus. Voittajille lähtee postissa Oregon-lautapelit, jotka kilpailun palkinnoksi tarjosi Lautapelit-fi. Onnittelut voittajille ja kiitos kaikille osallistujille!
HAASTATTELU MIKKO SAARI
Mikko Saaren haastattelu keskittyy Tarotista Texas Hold’em -kirjan käsittelyyn. Puhumme kirjasta yleisellä tasolla sekä siitä, millainen kirjankirjotusprosessi tällä kertaa oli. Lisäksi Mikko paljastaa tulevaisuuden suunnitelmiaan kirjoittamiseen liittyen ja kertoo millaisia pelejä hän tällä hetkellä pelaa mielellään.
ARVOSTELU: TAROTISTA TEXAS HOLD’EMIIN
Käyn arvostelussani läpi kirjan designia ja sisältöä sekä tuon esille muutamia huomioita kirjaan liittyen. Kaikenkaikkiaan arvostelu on erittäin positiivinen sillä kyseessä on mainio kirja. 4,5/5 tähteä irtoaa tässä tapauksessa ilman kummempia mukinoita.
LAUTAPELISUOMI KILPAILU 5 - MITKÄ OVAT LÄHES TÄYDELLISET KORTTIPELIT MIKKO SAAREN MIELESTÄ?
Lautapelisuomen viides kilpailu alkaa tämän jakson julkaisun yhteydessä. Kilpailun palkintona on Tarotista Texas Hold’emiin -korttipelikirja voittajalle ja voittaaksesi kilpailun sinun tulee siis arvata mitkä korttipelit ovat Mikko Saaren mielestä lähes täydellisiä? Palkinnon kilpailuun tarjoaa BTJ Kustannus, joka on Mikon kirjan julkaisija. Oikeaa vastausta kannattaa etsiä Mikon lautapelaaja.net -sivustolta. Lähetä vastauksesi sunnuntaihin 27.4.2008 mennessä osoitteeseen cane <ät> boardgamingfinland.com ja osallistut kilpailuun. Tarkemmat ohjeet kilpailuun osallistumisesta voit kuunnella jaksosta.
Toivottavasti jakso miellytti ja pääset lukemaan Mikon uutta kirjaa!
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Palaute on tervetullutta ja pyrin ottamaan sen huomioon tulevia jaksoja suunnitellessani. Lähetä ihmeessä myös toivomuksia tulevia jaksoja silmällä pitäen. Kiitokset myös Eminorille ja Mikko Putkoselle jakson musiikista.
Apr
4
Mikko Saari’s new book released today
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Mikko Saari’s new book Tarotista Texas Hold’emiin (From Tarot to Texas Holdem) was released today by
BTJ-Kustannus. Book is all about cards games; there’s history and rules for old classics and also information on more comtemporary card games.
I’ve read Mikko’s earlier book Uudet Lautapelit and although I found the book interesting I’m far more enthusiastic about the new book. There’s always a deck of cards available where ever you go and I know that there are so many cool card games, which I don’t know, that could be played with just an ordinary deck of cards.
I hope I’m able to interview Mikko for the Lautapelisuomi podcast and we can learn more about the book and process of writing it.
Mar
27
Nordic Serious Games conference was held few weeks back in Jyväskylä. Tuonela Productions had a presentation where the CEO of the company first told some facts on the board game field overall and then continued to the educational games Tuonela Productions has in it’s portfolio. The general information given for the audience is a bit simplified from the game enthusiastic’s perspective but otherwise there’s great discussion and information in the presentation.
There’s also guite a few other presentations available and I must say that production quality of the presentations in the website is great. There should be more occations like this which are also published for the wider audience. And definitely this is a good example that there’s things happening in the Finnish gaming field.
Mar
22
Lautapelisuomi - Tiedolla tai tuurilla!
Filed Under Podcast | Leave a Comment
LATAA - TÄSTÄ- LAUTAPELISUOMEN UUSIN JAKSO (.mp3)
LATAA - TÄSTÄ- LAUTAPELISUOMEN UUSIN JAKSO KUVITUKSEN KERA (.m4a)
Tässä jaksossa seuraavaa:
JOHDANTO
Johdannossa mainitaan Wits and Wagersin Xbox versio, joka julkaistaan lähiviikkojen aikana. Lisätietoa aiheesta täältä.
WITS AND WAGERSIN ARVOSTELU
Käyn läpi millaisesta pelistä on kysymys, miten peliä pelataan ja kenelle peli mielestäni soveltuu. Lisätietoa pelistä löydät esimerkiksi Boardgamegeekistä. Lisäsin myös kuvagallerioihini muutaman jaksossa käytetyn kuvan täydessä koossaan eli jos haluat tutustua komponentteihin lähemmin niin käy ihmeessä kurkkaamassa kuvia.
LAUTAPELISUOMI KILPAILUN VOITTAJA
Lautapelisuomen kolmannen kilpailun voitti Markku “JoeLamer” Jaatinen. Markun ehdotus Wits and Wagers -pelin suomennokseksi oli Tiedolla tai tuurilla! ja tällä kertaa Comperon väki katsoi, että nimi sisälsi enemmän tietoa kuin tuuria. Onnea voittajalle ja kiitokset kaikille kilpailuun osallistuneille vastaajille!
Hienoa myös on se, että Markun ehdotus valittiin Wits and Wagers -pelin suomenkieliseksi nimeksi.
HAASTATTELU LAUTAPELIT.FI / TONI NIITTYMÄKI
Lautapelisuomi kävi tutustumassa Lautapelit.fi:n toimintaan Simonkadun myymälässä. Käymme Tonin kanssa läpi Lautapelit.fi:n historiaa, toimintaa ja tulevia pelejä vuodelle 2008. Lisäksi puhumme lautapelialan näkymistä vähän laajemminkin kaiken muun tarinan ohessa. Lopuksi Toni kertoo vielä mistä peleistä hän pitää ja miksi.
Haastattelussa mainitaan ainakin seuraavat pelit: Oregon, Toledo, Modern Art, Gang of Four, Menolippu, Caylus, El Grande ja Gift Trap.
LAUTAPELISUOMI KILPAILU 4 - KUINKA MONTA LAUTAPELIÄ LAUTAPELIT.FI MYYMÄLÄSSÄ?
Lautapelisuomen neljäs kilpailu alkaa tämän jakson julkaisun yhteydessä. Kilpailun palkintona on Oregon -lautapeli kolmelle lähimmäksi arvanneelle ja voittaaksesi kilpailun sinun tulee siis arvata kuinka monta peliä Lautapelit.fi:n myymälässä oli myynnissä 14.3.2008, kun haastattelu tehtiin? Lähetä vastauksesi sunnuntaihin 6.4.2008 mennessä osoitteeseen cane <ät> boardgamingfinland.com ja osallistut kilpailuun. Tarkemmat ohjeet kilpailuun osallistumisesta voit kuunnella jaksosta.
Mukavaa pääsiäistä kaikille!
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Palaute on tervetullutta ja pyrin ottamaan sen huomioon tulevia jaksoja suunnitellessani. Lähetä ihmeessä myös toivomuksia tulevia jaksoja silmällä pitäen. Kiitokset myös Eminorille ja Mikko Putkoselle jakson musiikista.
Mar
22
Sneak peek on the Finnish Modern Art cards
Filed Under Modern Art, News | Leave a Comment
I saw the drafts of the cards and other components of the Modern Art in Finnish and man they look gorgeous. Here’s some teasers which I got from Lautapelit.fi. All paintings represent real contemporary art which I thing is just awsome.
Mar
22
Gathering of my friends
Filed Under Wits and Wagers, Galaxy Trucker, Session | 2 Comments
It was not the kind of gathering which takes place in the US; there were two of my oldest friends and in between of vivid discussion on various topics we played some games. We have played games together as long as we’ve known each other; computer games (I have especially fond memories from the Warlords 1 & 2 marathons that usually ended up in tears) and RPG:s. Board games have not been on our schedule that much but maybe it’s the age that makes the difference in games.
Galaxy Trycker was an obvious choise as the first game. Both of my friends are more or less scifi addicts and knew that GT would work well in this group. Only one of us had not played the game and after a relatively short explanation of rules we bagan playing. This time I only explained the building part before we started and after we had build the ships I continued to the exploration part of the game. This was a good way of introducing game concept to a new gamer; there were not too many rules to grasp and the event cards are not that important when you play the game first time.
We got lots of laughs and it was like back in the old days. Everyone seemed to like the game altough some of us had some problems to build the ship correctly thus making it far more challenging for them to keep the ship in one piece during the ride in space. I have to find the time and energy to put together the GT expancion cards which can be downloaded from the publishers official site. The more cards the merrier the game.
The other sure-to-find-its-target game for the night was
Wits and Wagers. Even the overly American questions did not hinder the game experience of me and my friends; on the contrary we had a couple of cheerful laughs because of the misunderstod questions and totally over the top answers to those questions. Wits and Wagers is not at its best with three but it worked well. We tweaked the rules so that one player at the time read the question and the first player to bet was the player sitting next to that player. This added a bit larger element of strategy and feel of gambling almost like in a tence game of poker. I’m pretty sure that Wits and Wagers could also work as a real gambling game when played as a tournament game like, lets say, Texas Holdem. Maybe there would be just a bit too much of luck for this to work but it might be a worth to try atleast in a group where most of the gamers are fond of poker.
Needless to say we enjoyed the game and played it three times. I’m really waiting for the Finnish version of the game to arrive - firstly, i’m waiting to get the Finnish questions in play and secondly Wits and Wagers is a game which is an excellent game to give out as a gift.