Mar
2
Video of Kosminen kierros in Youtube
Filed Under General, Lautapelinurkka | 2 Comments
Here’s a video of Kosminen kierros which is a game designed by Jani and Tero Moliis (they’ve also done Hornet). Video is in Finnish but so is the game which means that all you international folks are probably anyways able to play the game.
Oct
18
Game week 41/2011 – Getting ready for the Europe Masters
Filed Under General, Navegador, Olympos, Session, Troyes | Leave a Comment
Sort of quiet week of gaming except for Sunday when we met with our Europe Masters team. Tournament is held next Saturday in Essen, Germany at the Spiel fair and as Touko is heading to Germany today this was out last chance to practice.
First game of the night was Olympos which I rather like and have done quite well earlier in. I started the game from the 4th position which definitely is not the best in the game but I was lucky because the double sword tile was in the non-specific resource column. The other columns would have meant that I would have had to find some other path to begin the game than grabbing the double sword early on, which I did.
Touko, Saku and Janne (and I) playing Olympos
It was steady down hill from there on while I didn’t quite get a hold on any strategy and as a military leader I got to play rather seldom (without the time class tokens one doesn’t het too many turns during the game). Touko and Saku went for discount tiles and murdered me and Janne. Fortunately Janne did even worse than I giving me the 3rd position.
Olympos is a solid game which offers quite a variety of strategies from the get go. Path to victory is heavily dependent on other players’ decisions and your ability to grab the right tiles. Olympos might not be the perfect tournament game but certainly a fun game for casual gaming.
Second game of the training night was Troyes which I have played quite a lot and I’m comfortable playing the game. Troyes is a game, in my opinion, which demands an eye for opportunity and tactics and not so much strategical skills. Different set of cards create unique combination for each game and long term planning is very hard. I’ve done well in the game in previous meetings and did well this time also.
I went for the broad strategy to fight as many events as possible and ended having 6-7 cards. Obviously I took care of the cubes in the Cathedral as well and since I had the money card as a secret scoring card, I also secured 6 points with 18 money. In the end it was a very close game for others except Saku. Me, Touko and Janne had all 40 points and shared victory and left Saku 4th with 30 points. We had also couple good laughs watching Saku reroll ones to ones to ones. Good times!
Image by Antti Koskinen / BGG
The last game of the session was Navegador which is a solid eurogame with some very interesting mechanics but unfortunately it’s also lifeless and dull and I just can’t find the fun playing the game. I didn’t quite get the engine build up and running and didn’t hit the privileges often enough as I should have thus missing the big points in the end scoring. I felt that I always came behind somebody everywhere and in this game it’s definitely not a good position to be in. But hopefully I learned my lesson and will improve my game and the last place i got when I play Navegador at the tournament.
As said I’ll be off to Germany on Thursday morning and spending time walking, talking and most importantly playing games during the 4 days visit. I try to keep you informed of what’s going on and which games you really should keep you eyes on after the fair. But until then – Hyviä pelejä!
Oct
10
Gaming week 40/2011
Filed Under General, Kosminen kierros, Lemming Mafia, Navegador, Session, Space Empires: 4X | Leave a Comment
I did get some interesting games in this week.
On Thursday I visited Leppävaara’s game club and began the night with Navegador. This was the one game I really did want to play since it’s one of the games in the European Masters tournament which we’ll be attending during Spiel 2011. I had not had too many opportunities to play the game and there’s not that much time left before the tournament so I was glad that three other gamers joined me to play the game.
I was even more happy when we finished the game and I won it. I did not have strategy and I made mistakes but I suppose other players did more of them. Navegador is a game which I probably don’t play after the tournament because I find it to be much too dry and themeless for my taste. Mechanically the game is superb and theres’ a lot of meaningful choices throughout the game but it just isn’t fun enough.
Image by Daniel Danzer / BGG
After Navegador I ended willingly to play prototypes (the other choice would have been Eclipse but I probably have several chances to play it in the near future). First we tried Paul’s card game proto which was interesting and felt quite ready to be published. Game was a card placement game which had some interesting choices in a short playtime.
Next there were two prototypes from Touko – a trick taking game and a work game with cards. I had played the trick taking game and the small changes it had undergone were good. Game has quite unique card playing mechanic but I don’t know whether this mechanic alone makes the game interesting enough for continuous play. Word game was very interesting mix of classical word game and a speed game. It has potential and I suppose it’s going to be published some day.
Last game of the Leppävaara night was Kosminen kierros by Jani and Tero Moliis. I have had this sitting on my shelf for some time and it was great to have it on the table. Kosminen kierros is a game in which players are scientist on a mission to travel around the sun and gather as much information as possible. Each turn players visit one department of their space ship and trigger the action attached to it. Players can turn the ship, take resource cards, take information cards (which score in the end of the game) or fly the ship one space forward.
Image by Jani Moliis / BGG
Idea of the game is to fly the ship back to Earth and obviously there’s a high chance that ship crashes before it reaches Earth. The biggest problem in the game is that it is a collaboration game in which each player tries to gather their own points. This leads situations where some of the players don’t actually want the ship to finish because they don’t have any chance to win the game. With children this might not be such a big problem but because it’s fun to reach the final destination but gamers play to win and if they can’t it’s better to not let anyone else win either.
I also got a chance to try out the new 4X space game Space Empires: 4X which I’ve waited for almost a year. With three players the game took 4-5 hours and we did not even play until extermination (which would have taken several more hours). Playing time is definitely the biggest problem with this game and I don’t see a clear reduction of the duration even when players know the game. There are other issues with the game as well like the fact that you probably never have a chance to develop all the technologies in the game (they are just too expensive) and the fact that once someone has taken a clear lead in the game other(s) have no chance to come back (and the game might still last several hours).
Fortunately there’s variation and scenarios available for the game and you can play the game solitaire which offers a chance for longer games. Obviously I also need to try the game out with different amounts of players and maybe a bit smaller map and other additional rules. I hope that these changes will make the game better.
Image by Jim Krohn / BGG
After the very long Space Empires we still had time to play one short game. Hessu wanted to play Lemming Mafia and I had no objections since it is a solid game. I actually think that this game is a hidden gem which has gone under the radar for most gamers. There’s gorgeous components, fun game play and some interesting decisions in the game in the 20 minutes it lasts. Obviously it’s not a very deep game and there’s a lot of chaos in it but as much as I don’t like these characteristics in many games, in Lemmings Mafia they fit the theme and mechanics very well. Solid filler and a very good game to be played with families and non-gamers.
Image by Carsten ◄► Wesel / BGG
Great week of gaming behind and probably a bit quieter week ahead. I hope I can get some games in but even if I don’t, it’s soon going to be Essen time and I’ll be off to Germany to play a lot of games!
Sep
25
Finally back in business
Filed Under Dominant Species, Hamsterrolle | Leave a Comment
It’s been a long pause for boardgamingfinland but finally I’m back in business now that we’ve moved to a new location and I have a room dedicated for work and gaming. I kicked it off with three friends and three fun games.
First game of the night was Hamsterrolle which is at the moment unavailable at the market and I suppose Zoch is not going to republish it any time soon. It’s a pity since Hamsterrolle is a very entertaining dexterity filler with gorgeous components. The game takes maybe 10 minutes and filling the wheel with wooden pieces is challenging enough to keep it interesting for several plays. I can’t recommend Hamsterrolle as the beef of the game night but fortunately there’s plenty of other games to play when you need meatier game.
Image by W. Eric Martin
One good candidate as a meatier game is Principato which we played next. I’ve had the game for some time now but have been unable to play it because of the boxes lying around waiting to be emptied. I had read the rules a couple of times and Hessu had played the game once before so we had the game running in no time.
There’s several reasons why Principato is interesting from the boardgamingfinland point of view. Firstly the designer Touko Tahkokallio is a friend and a Finn and there aren’t too many Finnish designs in the international board game market. Secondly I really liked the game after reading the rules; it seemed that there were clever card mechanics and enough meat in the game for a hobby gamer.
Principato is actually quite straight forward type of game where on your turn you have two actions of three possibilities. You can activate a card you own, you can change a card you own to one of the general stock or you can take a joker resource. Players build an engine which generates points from military and or culture and the one who does it best wins the game. This sounds very euroish and that’s just what Principato is – a solid and streamlined eurogame.
I liked it but it took a tad too long with four players for what it is. I’m pretty positive that playing time can be reduced once everybody knows what they are doing but there is always the AP danger in a game like this. For all of you who are fans of engine building Principato might be what your looking for.
Image by Antti Koskinen / boardgamingfinland
The last game of the night was Dominant Species which has been sitting on my shelf for nearly a year since I last played it. Unfortunately year was too long and after three hours of playing we finally noticed that we had played one crucial rule wrong (each player controls animal and species refer to cubes players have on the board not like species refer to a player and all his cubes like we played). One mistake can have severe consequences and we decided that the way we had played had ruined the game and there wasn’t a reason to finish the game.
I probably should try to get Dominant Species on the table soon so that we could have another go with the correct rules. I like the game and the concept but there’s not enough time to play the game very often these days.
Feb
18
This is a question which boggles my mind not just because there has been interesting news on upcoming games from Finnish designers but also because I’ve played four unpublished prototypes during the last week. Finland is a small country and domestic market for board games is relative to the size of the nation.Therefore we don’t have too many companies producing games in Finland and we have even smaller amount of games from Finnish designers which have caught general attention in Finland. Historically Finns have been active to export goods and services and it seems that this is what’s happening also in board game design at the moment.
Nürnberg Toy Fair began an interesting year for Finnish board game design with announcements from eggertspiele and Queen Games of new releases designed by Finnish designers. Principato by Touko Tahkokallio is actually one of the first games from Finnish designer which has been published directly in a foreign board game company. Hopefully this opens doors for other Finnish designers as well and it teaches the other Finnish designers a lesson to be learned – you have to be active outside Finland in order to get your games published.
Kairo by Kimmo Sorsamo continues the success of The Club and Hornet which were published in Finland but distributed world wide. This is a solid way for the few Finnish board game companies to produce games also for the domestic market. Risks of the new game decrease when you are able to sell the rights of a game to other markets and while the domestic market is limited in size I think this will be a continuous model to get the games out in the future.
I was very glad to hear that Lautapelit.fi plans to publish Eclipse in 2011 because I am really fond of the game. Eclipse is also interesting because the focus of the game is solely in foreign markets (game is published in English). It’s not the first game which has been designed an an export product - Tuonela Productions has done it with their products before and while their games have not been big hits they’ve done it multiple times. Tuonela is bringing out The Capture of Sampo in 2011 which continues the line of thought they’ve had in their business.
Finally, there’s also the private entrepreneurs who surprise everybody with their games. Last year is was Mindwarrior Games and Hyptic who published games nobody had heard of but were glad to do so. BGG Geek of the Week Timo Multamäki also published new game with his Dragon Dawn Productions Ltd and The Phantom League has even had smallish hypein the BGG. I’m pretty sure there’s going to be surprises also in 2011 but that’s something we have to wait and see.
I’ve continued my rant for far too long but have not talked about the prototypes which lead to the chain of thoughts. All four prototypes were promising but in different stages. One of them probably comes out in 2011 from a foreign publisher and hopefully the other three will reach the final stage of the design process and find their ways to the gamers’ tables.
Feb
14
To be quite honest Eclipse would have definitely been in my top 3 games I played during 2010 but as the 2 games I played were done with an unpublished version of the game it really doesn’t count.But it was very delightful to hear that Lautapelit.fi will publish the game and presumably the date for the release is Spiel Fair (at Essen) in late October. For all of you wondering whether Eclipse is going to be seen outside the Scandinavia I have good news – game is going to be published in English. I’m also pretty sure that there’s going to be distributors involved both in the Europe and in the US.
Cover of Eclipse
Why do I anticipate Eclipse so much? Well, I’m a sucker for thematic, epic games which have solid mechanics, civilization feel, huge amount of gorgeous bits and pieces and they bring enjoyment even if the game lasts for a couple of hours. There’s a few games you know you’ll going to enjoy greatly for a long time after the first play and Eclipse did it for me (last game in a similar category was probably Twilight Struggle). All the ingredients of the game form an interesting mix which just clicks for me and I’m not alone with my feelings since everybody who have playtested the game have enjoyed it (average rating with 21 responders is 8.38).
If the marketing of the game is done well and there’s even a slight hype for the game, Eclipse is probably going to be one of the international hits of 2011. Hopefully we are going to get updates from Touko Tahkokallio and Sampo Sikiö of the present and future state of the game!
Eclipse playerd at Ropecon 2010
Feb
9
Very brief look at Kairo by Queen Games
Filed Under General, Kairo | Leave a Comment
This post is very brief because information on Kairo is very limited. It’s one of the games which came out in Nürnberg and what I heard was that the copy which Queen Games had at the fair was actually a prototype of the coming game.
Kairo presented at Nürnburg
Why am I interested in this game? Well, Kairo it actually a remake of an Finnish game Tori designed by Kimmo Sorsamo which was published last year in the Nordic Countries.I was pretty heavily involved in the designing process of the game and therefore it’s interesting to see what Queen Games comes up with when they get Kairo published.
Probably there’s not going to be huge changes at least in the core mechanics of the game. The most innovative mechanic in Tori (a game about trading in a market square) is the satisfying customer needs mechanic(which also was the starting point for the game itself). In the game customers are meeples in different colors and colors represent the customer needs in certain type of goods. Players act as entrepreneurs and try to lure customers to their counters (same colors as the one’s of the customers’). Once a customer buys the goods he needs, the meeple chances to another one in different color (staying at a designated place off board) and voilà, the customer thus wants to consume some other type of goods like he would in real life.
Other mechanics of the game are more like in a average euro style board game and obviously the purpose of the game is score more points than fellow players. Tori is more of a gamers game and I presume that Kairo is going to be developed more into a family game. Maybe they come up with a similar approach they’ve used in Fresco where the basic game is quite basic but you get extras with the main game which deepen the gaming experience.
We have to wait and see.
Feb
8
Short look at Principato by eggertspiele
Filed Under General, Principato | Leave a Comment
2011 is definitely going to be an interesting year for Finnish geeks since there’s quite a few interesting releases coming for the year and increasingly these games come out from well known international publishers. Principato is the first one to hit the market and also the first with published rules which means it’s also the first one I can take a loot at.
Principato cover art
Principato is designed by Touko Tahkokallio whom I know personally and who’s games I typically play as prototypes before they actually come out of the tube. Surprisingly though I have not played prototype of Principato which actually is very cool – one can feel the thrill of a new hot game. Touko is a solid designer with Politix, Arvuutin and Aether already on the market and loads of prototypes on the table to be released some time in the future.
Principato is based in Renaissance Italy; a theme we have seen in so many other games before. I’m typically fond of more thematic games and Renaissance Italy is not one of my favorites but in this case the mechanics of the game could actually fit rather well in the framework of it.
Principato looks like a simple game with only three possible actions on player’s turn. You can execute an actions card, you can change an actions card or you can take one joker resource. Scoring is also pretty straight forward but versatile enough to sustain the interest (and undoubtedly scoring is well balanced). The hard part of the game is to plan your game so that you have the right actions at the right time and that you’ll be able to maximize your score with the limitations yo face.
I think I’m going to like Principato which is not a huge surprise. There’s not too much going on in the game but enough for you to like it. Luck plays a role in the game but probably not too big of a role and skill and experience are needed to score high points (and win the games).
Thumbs up for Principato and thumbs down for the wait to get it played!
Nov
18
Helcon 2010
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Helcon 2010 was last weekend and for most of the attendees it was full of games from Friday until Sunday. Unfortunately I was the head organizer of the event which obviously meant that I had to concentrate mainly on other thing than to play games.
As an organizer of the event I was happy because everything more or less worked as planned and every one seemed to enjoy themselves. We had more media coverage than I had been excepting which is definitely good not just for the event itself but also for the Finnish board gaming scene as a whole. Media also brought in a lot of families who otherwise would have not found the event and our efforts to help them made them play more than one game in the event (and hopefully we got plenty of new gamers).
For the serious gamers Essen and Spiel were the main course for the con and I tried to find time to play the games I brought from Essen to Finland. I wasn’t too efficient with my goal but here’s a few words on the games I played.
Nino Delfino was the first game I played during the con. We had it as a demo game and it turned out to be sort of a hit for the con since we had a lot of families attending and Nino Delfino was perfect for them. The game itself is simple roll and move game where die has been replaced with a deck of cards and then there is the dolphin which is a cool gimmick.
Image form BGG by Raiko Puust
Charly was also in Fridays agenda and it turned out to be relatively entertaining family game. Simple game in a small box is something which families tend to need from time to time and Charly is perfect to fulfill these needs. I don’t mind playing it again but probably it doesn’t hit table very often (even though I own a copy of the game).
Tornado Alert was a good way to end Friday since it’s a Finnish design and we had the designer present at the con. The game has had some buzz in the BGG after Scott Nicholson made a video presentation of the game. I also met designer Ilmo Nurminen at the Spiel fair but did not have time to play his game then. Tornado Alert is a interesting mix of ingredients; there’s speed, memory and counting involved in the game. It also felt very unique which for me is a positive remark because nowadays most games remind me of some other games.
Image frrom BGG by Ilmo Nurminen
Saturday was again full of official responsibilities which left less time for gaming but it was great to see Loch Ness on the table. Gorgeous game describes Loch Ness very well and since there’s also a good game inside the box it’s a solid addition to my kids games section which waits for my daughter to grow up. We also played a round of Sobek which remains a quick and somewhat entertaining French style filler.
Image from BGG by Antti Koskinen
After so many light games it was time for something meatier which in this case was Troyes. Troyes was one of the hits of Spiel and it’s definitely a game for gamers. I had played the game once before and explained the rules for others and somewhere in the middle of the explanation I could see that others didn’t quite get it. In some cases I would find it worrisome but with Troyes that is probably the case with all first timers. The game has interesting dice mechanic which is the heart of the game. There are plenty of ways to score points in the game but during the first play I was struggling to find the efficient ways to do it. Second game was definitely easier now that I knew how the game progressed but still I felt I did not find the thread of the game. Fortunately in a table with newbies I didn’t have to score well to win the game.
The beef of the Helcon 2010 for me was my pre planned game of Eclipse. Eclipse is a prototype by Touko Tahkokallio and Sampo Sikiö who I know well and I had already played Eclipse twice before. But there’s something in the game which intrigues me and keeps me wanting more. This time I tried to win the game with Planta (race in the game) which seemed to be challenging since they could only hold three victory chips instead of four and when somebody could drive my ships from my star systems I immediately lost the control for the them.
My strategy was to move quickly and block all others races from my start systems. It was a solid strategy but execution of it was poor – I ended up blocking all but two races but unfortunately both of them were more advanced than me and they smacked me pretty badly. It was a survival game for me but again I enjoyed myself. Planta was not the most interesting race to start a game because it needs to keep out of action for the most of the time and building your empire alone in the outskirts of the galaxy is not the most exiting thing to do for 3+ hours. I do hope that Eclipse finds a publisher and others game enthusiasts get to experience the epic fun it offers.
Image from BGG by Antti Koskinen
Helcon had open doors on Sunday and there were a lot of families playing games. I helped around until I got my own family in. Good friend Olli also did a quick visit and we sat down to play Ubongo 3D which remained a too challenging game for me. Sand timer of the game did not work which meant that we had more time to solve the puzzles but still probably half of them were too hard for either of us to solve.
The last game of the con was Fresco which I’ve been trying to get to the table eagerly for the summer; I love arts and Fresco is all about them so the theme of the game is very interesting. As one could except the game was not a disappointment with its solid mechanics and relatively short playing time. We played the basic game and with 4 extensions, that come with the game, there’s more than enough meat in the game even for the game hobbyists.
Helcon 2010 was fun event and hopefully in future it is even more fun as well as larger and more varied.
Oct
29
Spiel 2010
Filed Under General | Leave a Comment
I wrote I geek list of the games I played, games I played and things I did during the fair. Check it out!
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/60359/games-i-played-things-i-did-spiel-2010
