Dec
28
Digesting the Christmas Ham
Filed Under Bausack, Gift Trap, Lost Cities, Session, Tichu | Leave a Comment
Christmas was as Christmas should be, calm and full of traditions. Not that much gaming in my family during the holidays but fortunately there are always others geeks who wish to play games.
This time it was the Leppävaara board game club which is one of the oldest in Finland. I haven’t had time to participate in Leppävaara club because usually im occupied Thursday nights but other activities don’t disturb gaming during this time of the year.
First game of the day was Lost Cities which I played with Minttu and won (Minttu was tired otherwise I certainly would have lost). I’ve played Lost Cities a lot this year and I’m a bit tired of the game but it’s definitely better than nothing and very good with people who are not yet into gaming.
After LC I joined a table which began playing
Gift Trap; a party game that has just hit the Finnish board game markets. Gift Trap is all about knowing the people who participate in the game. The idea of the game is to first pick suitable gift from the table to the other players and then pick the gifts which interest you the most. I don’t know Leppävaara crowd that well and those who I know a little better are really weird which led to a miserable last place in the game. Gift Trap is still a reasonable party game and one that I really would like to try in a group I know well.
Third game of the night was
Bausack, a dexterity game with blocks of all shape that you should put on top of each other. Choosing which blocks you have to use is done with auction mechanic and bacause money is really scarce recourse in the game you end up taking the block no matter how odd it is. I’m not so fond of dexterity games and did not do too well in thisone either; I ended up being 5th but managed to last one round more than everyone expected. I think Bausack is good in its category but not the kind of game I really enjoy a lot.
Last two games of the night were games of
Tichu. Tichu is my favorite game and I’m always willing to play it. Last night we had four good players which makes the game even more enjoyable. Johanna and Johannes are in the lead of the Finnish Tichu League after the first round and play very solid Tichu. Janne and I have not played that much together and while Janne tries to stay out of BSW he has not played Tichu as much as the others. But his a great tricktaker and Tichu suits him well (maybe he’ll have the courage to try grand tichus next time)
We won the first game 1140-560 after a couple of succesful grand tichus to both sides and some failed tichus to opponents side. We had better luck with the cards, yelled the tichus that were possible to have and didn’t do mistakes and that’s how you win a game of Tichu. The other game went to the other direction 1140-360 after a rather short game. Opponents got most of the good cards, played boldly and were able to yell two grand tichus with a double victory; not much chance for us even with flawless play. Tichu in a good company is truly satisfying experience and I hope I’ll be able to play Tichu more often next year (which is quite a lot considering the amount of plays I have had this year).
Dec
24
Merry Christmas!
Filed Under General | Leave a Comment
I hope that everyone has time to be with the family and relatives and that Santa brings some awsome games to play during the Christmas time. Take it easy and enjoy!
Dec
21
I wish everyday would be like Thursday
Filed Under General, Session, Wizard | Leave a Comment
I had an interesting day yesterday. First I met Marcus Kevin from the
Gambit Games Ltd which is a recently found Finnish board game design company. Their first release
Finanssinero came out November and has created quite a fuzz around it. I also received a copy of the game which I’m hopefully able to play soon. I was amused by the fact that I’m the first person to own the game in the
BGG but what I heard the game is really doing well in the Christmas market.
After the interview (which is by the way going to be a part of my next podcast) I rushed to
Leppävaara to play some games in the local gaming club. I got my order from Germany which included
Wizard and
Attribute and we began to play Wizard. Wizard is an interesting trick taking game where the amount of cards rises every round; in the first round every player has 1 card and the last 15 (with four players that is). Before every round each player has to say how many tricks he/she is going to win and points are given for those who succeed in the promises. Basically the game is straight forward type of game but there are two types of special cards that make the game a bit harder to predict. Randomness also makes the game more fun although heavy gamers don’t probably like this game that much.
We continued with The Last Panther which is one of the games in the Mü and More deck. The Last Panther is also a trick taking game and a good one too. The only thing with the game is that you always end up with minus points (the one who gets minus 250 points looses). It’s disturbing me.
Dec
19
Not as heavy as I would have wanted but still quite enjoyable
Filed Under Arriba, China, Sleuth | Leave a Comment
Well, that’s the case most of the time- it’s hard to find a group of players who really share the same wants in gaming. Yesterday at the N-BGC (Nokia Board Game Club) was just like that. First we played a seven players game of
Arriba which is a variant of Jungle Speed. We should have had a round table and a few portions of food less to have the most enjoyable game and now the game felt and was a filler.
After the first game we split up into groups. One group played Agricola (one missed oppurtunity for me), the other began a game of In Year of the Dragon (another great choice) and me, Kati and Anu took China which is always a great choice. I was the only one who had played the game and took a relatively easy win, surprisingly.
Next game was a bit tricky. Others were still occubied with their first games and while there were a lot of games to play there were not so many we knew beforehand. I had taken Sleuth with me just in case there were someone who would be interested to play it with me. Sleuth is a gift from the Secret Santa and I must say that although I don’t really know how the Santa knew I’d be interested in this particular game (it wasn’t on my wishlist) Santa knew what he was doing.
Sleuth is an interesting deduction game where players try to figure out which one of the 36 gem cards in the game is missing. This is done by asking questions around the table with the help of dedective cards which dictate whatkind of questions one can ask. The one who figures out the missing card first is the winner and wrong guess means you drop out of the game Sleuth was a hit; we played two games of it and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. It’s not the heaviest of games but still challenging enough to be engrossing.
We still had time for a quick game and took another try with Arriba. I definitely feel that Arriba needs more than three players and a bit wilder surroundings than we had. There are games for different situations and better games for those situations where Arriba is in its best.
Dec
15
Lautapelisuomi – Kirjasto pelaa
Filed Under Podcast | 4 Comments
LATAA JAKSO - TÄSTÄ- (mp3, 74:45 min)
Tässä jaksossa:
- Tarinointia Stefan “stefu” Engblomin kanssa matkalla Turkuun Kirjasto pelaa -tapahtumaan
- Stefun luento lautapeleistä ja -pelaamisesta tapahtuman yhteydessä
- Niko “edain” Suojamon (pääjärjestäjä) haastattelu tapahtumasta
- Tarinointia Stefun kanssa matkalla takaisin Helsinkiin
Kaikki palaute on tervetullutta; lähettäkää sitä minulle yhteystiedoissa olevaan osoitteeseen tai kommentoikaa jaksoa tähän viestiin.
Kinkkucon on myös tulossa. Käykää ihmeessä tutustumassa tapahtumaan!
Laiton myös näytille muutaman kuvan tapahtumasta, jotka löytyvät täältä
Ja sitten vielä artikkeli tapahtumasta Turun Sanomissa
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Dec
9
Kirjasto Pelaa boardgaming event in Turku
Filed Under Cassiopeia, For Sale, PitchCar, Session | Leave a Comment
I spent the whole Saturday in Turku in an interesting board game event Kirjasto Pelaa – Library Plays. It was well organized, there were quite a lot of people and from very different age and experience groups and everyone seemed to have nice time. I had the privilige to travel with Stefan “Stefu” Engblom, who is the chairman of the Finland Boardgame Society and who had been invited to give a speech in the event. Speech was informative and well received and I had the oppurtunity to talk with Stefu also for my podcast. And discussions during the drive were also interesting.
We did not have too much time to play but we introduced
PitchCar to 8-10 ten year old boys. PitchCar was a immidiate hit and everyone was able to grasp the concept of the game quickly. Kids are also very dexterous with their fingers and me and Stefu had no chance of winning the games we played but overall it was just great to see how Pokemon players queued to play PitchCar and had loads of fun playing it.
After the library event was over we went with the organizers to near by bar where we continued to play. First we played a filler
For Sale while we waited for all players to arrive. For Sale is great game
when you have little time but you want to spend it playing a quality game. I really like the mechanics of For Sale where you first bid on property and then sell the property using blind bidding. It’s fast, it’s easy but it’s fun and winning is not determined by pure luck.
Last game we played was Bruno Faidutti’s proto Cassiopeia which is going to be published sometime in the future. The game was a optimization game with a well fitting space exploration theme. In the beginning of the game players have one planet with one base in it and one space shuttle. Each player has a set of actions and each turn 3-4 actions per player are activated. Everyone may do the action but the one who played it gets usually a nice bonus for playing the card. Players expand their imperium by exploring the star systems and build bases and factories or transformate the planets and gain points by doing so.
We had a tight game; before the last round four out of five players where inside a three point margin. We saw huge scores in the last round when everyone used their scoring actions to gain as much points as possible. Stefu had build a balanced imperium and could score the highest score in the last round and won the game. I managed to secure a second place with well timed scoring in the last round.
I liked this prototype and I’m waiting to how is it like when it’s published. I also had great time in Turku and I hope that next year there will be even larger event which is organized as well as the first Kirjasto Pelaa was.
- Here- you can read an article from the Turun Sanomat about the event.
Dec
6
New internet board game web store- Competo
Filed Under News | Leave a Comment
There is a new internet based board game store in Finland. Competo opened its web store and brings additional choise for choosing the place where to buy games. Actually Competo is a new brand for Marektoy board games which have previously been published under Marektoy’s own brand. Marektoy is a Finnish publisher which have rights to Finnish versions of board games such as Settlers of Catan (Catanin Uudisasukkaat), Himalaya, Lost Cities (Kadonneet Kaupungit) and Pillars of the Earth (Taivaan Pilarit).
Not suprisingly Competo sells only games which they have published. If you are interested in good quality games published in Finnish go and visit Competo.
Dec
4
Lautapelisuomi – Pelit pukinkonttiin -jouluspesiaali
Filed Under Lautapelisuomi, Podcast | Leave a Comment
LATAA JAKSO - TÄSTÄ- (mp3, kesto: 49:34)
Lautapelisuomi podcast syventyy tässä jaksossa joululahjasuosituksiin. Esittelen 12 peliä 4:ssä eri kategoriassa.
Lastenpelit
Perhepelit
Korttipelit
Pelit lautapeliharrastajille
Paikkoja joista voit kyselle suosittelemiani pelejä:
Jos kaipaa lisää lahjasuosituksia käy myös katsomassa nämä lähteet:
Lautapelaaja.net (Mikko Saaren suositukset vuodelle 2007. Kurkkaa myös edellisen vuoden suositukset)
Suomen lautapeliseura (Suomen lautapeliseuran lahjasuositukset)
Toivottavasti ohjelma auttaa lahjojen valinnassa. Jos olet ehdottomasti eri mieltä jostain valinnasta tai haluat onnitella onnistuneesta valinnasta, lähetä minulle sähköpostia tai kommentoi tähän viestiin. Kaikki palaute on aina tervetullutta.
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