Jan
28
Head-to-head session at Library 10
Filed Under 1960: Making of the President, Caylus Magna Carta, Session | 1 Comment
Me and Rafa had a session of two player games at the Library 10 today. Sunday is a gaming day for the gaming club which gatheres at the Library but recent weeks have been really quiet because there haven’t been too many players around. I sincerely hope that spring brings with it not just sunny days but also a few players.
We bagan with
Caylus Magna Carta which was one of the most interesting games of the year 2007. Rafa had not played it before but rules aren’t problem with Caylus MG – they can be tought rather easily. Most of the two player games I’ve played have been struggling either with money or resourses (or both) and our game wasn’t different. Rafa made poor move in the beginning and I didn’t hesitate to exploit it. Situation on the board remained unchanged for most of the game which suited me fine because I had the initiative. Rafa build a quarry a bit too late to come back in the game and I scored a win with 35 points. Points came from the castle since I build only one building in the game.
The second game we had time to play was
1960: Making of the President and history repeated itself – Kennedy won with a huge margin. Rafa had not played the game before so he made some pretty awful mistakes during the game and made my game much easier. Although 1960:MofP is a card game and there is luck involved it’s really hard game for the first timers. The amount of cards is tantalizing and newbies tend to forget the nuances of the mechanics also and this was just what happened. The end score of 415 Kennedy against 83 Nixon confims that I have a point here… 
Anyways, I promised to give Rafa another try after he have had time to digest the game and suppose Kennedy is not going to wlak through the elections as easily as he did today.
Nov
21
Lautapelinurkka – 1960: Making of the President
Filed Under 1960: Making of the President, Lautapelinurkka, Podcast | 2 Comments
LATAA JAKSO - TÄSTÄ-
Tässä jaksossa arvostelen 1960: Making of the Presidentin.
Voit kysellä ja katsella pelin saatavuutta joko Lautapelit.fi:stä tai Milan-Spielestä. Tämän hetkisellä dollarin kurssilla peliä ei kannata Yhdysvalloista tilata.
Kerro minulle, mitä mieltä olet arvostelustani. Oletko samaa mieltä vai puhunko aivan puuta heinää.
Ja erityiset kiitokset jälleen Mikko Putkoselle ja Eminorille musiikista, joka on ihan taivaallista ja johon toivon sinun tutustuvan.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Nov
17
A Night of 1960:MofP and Dvonn
Filed Under 1960: Making of the President, Dvonn, Session | Leave a Comment
For me
1960: Making of the President has been the most anticipated game of the year 2007 and now that I’ve played it 4 times I must say that it has met the expectations. Game is mechanically well balanced, it is relatively easy to teach even to those who are not so used to meatier games and game captures the feel of campaigning and all the ups and downs of it.
Last night I had the pleasure to play the game with my good friend O-P whom I’ve known since childhood and who I knew would really enjoy playing the game. We are both interested in politics and history and I can’t think of any game that would be more appropriate for such tastes.
After 30 min rules explanation we were ready to play. O-P wanted to be underdog and took Nixon which was fine to me because I had only played Kennedy side only once. Nixon started stong in the West and took all but one state relatively quickly through some nice events. Kennedy got a firm hold in New Your and Pennsylvania and then moved on to Midwest. After taking the states in the West Nixon travelled to East and began a fight over New York. Nixon was also lucky to have strong media support in the region which made it much harder for Kennedy to defend his ground. The fight over the issues was also heavy all the time but Kennedy managed to keep the track under his control more often.
Debates went to Kennedy 6-3. O-P was forced to play Kennedy’s cards to issues because he had not been able to play the cards during the rounds. Kennedy got a hold on California with the state support and battle continued. Kennedy got a firm grip on the South with Gathering Momentum event and Nixon wasn’t so interested in fighting back. In the end the most important single thing which gave Kennedy maybe 30-35 more votes were endorsements which Kennedy had in the West and Midwest and that Kennedy was the last player to go in the last turn. This didn’t decide the winner though bacause Kennedy had such a strong lead already.
Kennedy 40W, 98MW , 128S, 84E, 350 Total
Nixon 75W, 43MW, 0S, 69E, 187 Total
I think that O-P enjoyed the game and seemed even to be interested to buy the game when it again is available in Finland. And I hope that he’ll play this with me again despite the loss.
The second game we still had time to play was
Dvonn. Dvonn is a game which I like a lot and wish that it would hit the table more often. O-P hadn’t played the game before but in this case it didn’t matter that much. I told him the rules and we began to play. It took us some time to finish because of the conversation we had (and maybe because of the i-dont-know-how-many glasses of red wine) and in the end O-P beat me quite badly (23-13).
Its always great to play good games with good company and our session was not an exception.