Feb
20
Busy week of gaming
Filed Under 10 Days in Europe, Alias, Amazing Labyrinth, Battle Line, Gang of Four, Kingsburg, Race for the Galaxy, Samurai, San Juan, Session, StreetSoccer, Thebes, Wits and Wagers | Leave a Comment
I’m on my winter holiday and I’ve been able to do some serious gaming. Saturday was Tracon which I’ve already given report earlier. Sunday I visited the weekly meeting of the Library 10 game club and was able to play
Gang of Four,
Samurai and
Battle Line. I have to say that I’m not a fan of Samurai. I don’t quite know why I don’t like the game but I just don’t. Maybe it’s the quiet tensity of the game and my aching brains when I play the game. Battle Line proved to be very interesting two player card game with a ancient battle theme. It’s quick and there is definitely some strategy in the game eventhough luck plays a role here as in most of the card games anyways.
On Monday I held a game night at my school. I study at the Sibelius-Academy which is full of musicians practicing 24/7 and Student Union is trying to provide other activities for the students. I’m able to provide games and we have had fun playing them. What is most interesting in Siba’s club is the fact that most of the participants are ladies and the games we play are a bit diffirent than usually. This time I introduced
Wits and Wagers which in the end was a success (some of the players would have liked to change the game during the first round). After W&W majority voted for
Alias which is a game I dislike and when I was playing the game I remembered why. It’s long, there’s a lot of down tile and me and my partner don’t have any chance to win because explaining words is not my thing. Girls went on to play
Amazing Labyrinth and me and the other gent kicked off a game of
StreetSoccer.
Tuesday nights are reserved for
Nokia Board Game Club and there I was playing games again. First game of the night was
10 Days in Europe which I’ve just bought and after some difficulties in the beginning even had the appropriate tiles to play the game. Game seems to be just what I expected it to be – fast, easy and accessible for non-gamers. we went on to play
Thebes which is also a solid game although I haven’t got a chance to win the game because I never draw any treasures from the bag.
Then
Kingsburg which I liked. Kingsburg is a game of resource management and lots of dice. Players throw the dice and use them to obtain resources from the board. There’s spaces from 1 to 18 on the board and every space has unique attribute – some give you more resources others points or bonuses in battle. The overall mechanic of the game rocks and there’s also interesting mechanics involved which help the players who has been left behind. I hope I’m able to play Kingsburg again sometime soon to further develop my understanding of the game because after just one play it’s usually hard to make any permanent conclutions.
Last game of the night was
Race for the Galaxy. There were four of us and ha the least experience with 2 plays.
Oskari had played 40+ times and Janne 10+ and I suppose
Saku also had a few games more under his belt than me. None was surprised when I was left dead last. I don’t particularly like RftG because there’s too much cards and therefore one can not have influence in one’s strategy enough. If I begin building these buildings I have to have this one / these two cards in order to win. How probable it is that I get those cards from the deck? With four players not too probable. This same problem rises also when you play
San Juan with four. It is less likely that you get the necessary cards to win the game but still I believe that SJ is actually much easier to control than RftG. Maybe I’ll change my view when I’ve played the game 10+ times and at least if I someday get the 500+ games played as I have with San Juan.