Jul
28
Saturday game session
Filed Under Caylus, China, Dungeon Twister: Paladins and Dragons, Session | Leave a Comment
I really should have been in Tampere participating in the Finncon event on Saturday but unfortunately I had other scheduled plans for the weekend. The slight dissapointment turned into a entertaining evening with coulple of my frinds coming over and playing some games.
We began with
China by Michael Schacht which is a elegant and fast area majority game. The first game of any game night tend to be little bit lighter because everyone needs a bit warming up before the main course and China is a perfect example of such a game. It is easy to teach but relatively hard to master, there is cards involved which brings in a luck factor and makes winning harder even for the experienced players and the game plays in about 30 minutes which is just about the right length for the first game. As usual none other had played the game before and I had no chance to win the game.
The main course for Saturday night was Caylus which I really like (much more that the Caylus Magna Carta card game version of the same game) but am able to play far less than I’d like to. Caylus was a huge hit in the Spiel game fair few years back but since then the fuzz has evaporated and ratings for the game have come down. My friends had not played the game so they didn’t reject the game and so I started the long monologue over the rules for the game.
The game went as one could imagine: first the game seemed to be rather tight but as I was the only one who had somekind of idea what I was doing and how I might end up doing it the final scores were a bit over 120 points for me in the end and 65-70 points for the others. I build my strategy on building track favors and castle and when the others didn’t do the same and did not ensure (how could they even know to do that?) that they could do the same using buildings on the road I was the only one with green and blue buildings Anyways, we still enjoyed the game quite a bit eventhough the game took 2,5 hours and I’m pretty positive that Caylus is going to hit the table again soon enough
The last game of the night was for two players while there weren’t more players to play games. I play two player games regularly and therefore I also try to find good new games for two. The latest game in my collection for two is the first expansion for Dungeon Twister called Paladins and Dragons and while both of us had played the original game before we took the expansion and tried it out. We soon came to realise that this expansion is much tougher nut to crack than the original game and it was mainly because the terrain was lot harder to get by. We basically spend the first 30 minutes just trying to move our characters forward and there weren’t any action in the game and when the action started it was over quickly. Lauri made a few careless moves which gave me the oppurtunity to slay his paladin and dragon (3 VPs) and after my dragon got the transportation ring it moved to a adjacent tile and barbequed two characters giving me the missing 2 VPs and the victory.
Dungeon Twister is a brain burner but I enjoy it. Game can take a bit too long to play atleast if one or both of the players think about the moves too long. Fortunately there are some nice gadgets to master this problem, like the Zumba Gametimer which worked decently in my mobile phone thrue a WLAN connection. Portable gametimers are handy and Zumba’s timer is designed for any number of players which makes it even more functional with board games.
Jul
14
Lautapelisuomi – jakso 15
Filed Under Lautapelisuomi, Podcast | Leave a Comment
LATAA – TÄSTÄ- LAUTAPELISUOMEN UUSIN JAKSO (.mp3)
Tässä jaksossa seuraavaa:
JOHDANTO
UUTISET
Vuoden tärkein kansainvälinen lautapelipalkinto Spiel des Jahres jaettiin viime viikolla ja käsittelen palkinnon saajaa lyhykäisesti uutisosiossa.
LAUTAPELISUOMEN KESÄKILPAILU
Lautapelisuomen kesäkilpailuun liittyy viisi kuva-arvoitusta, joista sinun pitäisi tunnistaa kyseessä oleva peli. Kaikilla kuvilla on myös jotain yhteistä keskenään ja sinun tulee myös kertoa mikä tämä yhteinen tekijä on. Kuva löytyvät blogin kuvagalleriasta lautapelisuomi kesäkilpailu -linkin takaa.
Vastauksen takaraja on sunnuntai 27.7.2008 ja voittajalle on luvassa Competon lahjoittamat uunituoreet suomeksi julkaistut Chinatown [ BGG] ja Qwirkle [ BGG].
Käy tutustumassa Competon pelivalikoimaan osoitteessa www.competo.fi.
HAASTATTELU GAMBIT GAMES OY
Pääsin haastattelemaan Marcus Keviniä Gambit Gamesista. Edellisestä haastattelusta on vierähtänyt jo runsaanlaisesti aikaa ja tässä haastattelussa päivitetään ensinnäkin tietoja menneen vuoden ajalta ja toisaalta pohditaan tulevaa syksyä ja Gambit Gamesin uutuspelejä (Maximus ja Duco).
LAUTAPELIEN JULKAISEMINEN JA LEVITTÄMINEN
Tässä jaksossa esitetään ensimmäinen osa lautapelien levittämistä koskevaa keskustelua, jonka käyn Tuonela Productionsin Jussi Aution kanssa. Aihe ei ole tuulesta temmattu vaan siihen antoi kimmokkeen Suomen Lautapeliseuran foorumeilla käyty lyhyehkö keskustelu aiheesta.
Haastattelun toisessa osassa käsittelemme lautapelien levittämistä Suomen ulkopuolelle, erilaisia muita mahdollisuuksia levittää lautapelejä sekä sitä millaisia muutoksia suomalaiseen järjestelmään tarvittaisiin, jotta pelejä saataisiin enenevässä määrin myös kansainväliseen levitykseen.
Haastattelun ensimmäinen ossa julkaistiin edellisessä Lautapelisuomen jaksossa ja siinä käsiteltiin yleisiä edellytyksi pelille, jotta se voi ylipäänsä tulla julkaistuksi ja levitetyksi sekä lautapelien levittämistä kotimaassa.
Keskustelussa esiintyviä tahoja:
Seuraavassa Lautapelisuomen jaksossa esitetään toinen osa keskusteluamme, jossa käsitellään pelien levittäminen Suomen ulkopuolelle, muut mahdolliset levityskanavat sekä parannuskohtia ja -ehdotuksia tämänhetkiseen tilanteeseen Suomessa.
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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 sekä Mikael Konttiselle jakson musiikista.
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Jul
14
I visited Lautapelit.fi store today and met owner Toni who showed me ther new release Wings of War Deluxe Set. I had not heard even any rumors of Finnish release of this game and I was pleasently suprised by the news. Wings of War is a light miniature war game where players control planes from World War 1 era and battle against each other until death. Maneuvering is done with cards and there are a lot of diffirent choises how to fly the plane and game should be full of straight forward action but, although it has a war theme, it is not deep in strategy.
Finnish edition is Deluxe Set which comes with 4 pre painted miniatures which look awsome and should keep boys occupied for a longer while. Deluxe Set is for 2-4 players but there’s a wide variety of miniatures available with which you can expand the amount of players easily. The man behind the translation is Mikko Saari which means that rules should be translated well.
Jul
7
War and horse races are pleasures of summer days
Filed Under Combat Commander: Europe, Maximus, Session | Leave a Comment
Summer is great time for gamer and lots of games that have been unplayed a long time have hit the table lately. I have been interested in war games for a long time and have played some war games with computer that are rather similar to those that are available as board games. Steel Panthers: World at War is probably the game I’ve played the most with computer and have enjoyed myself a lot with it.
I have also purchased a couple of war games but have not found a suitable time to play them until we got to the summer cottage with one of old friends who is far more experienced with computer war games than I am and have just recently resigned from the Finnish Military Force. We took out my copy of the Combat Commander: Europe and gave it a try and were able to play to first scenarios as well as the introduction.
CC:E is a war game with a card drafting mechanic which has lead to a decision to remove dice from the game (dice rolls are pictured in the cards). Cards also determine which orders and actions you are able to give out to your troops and these two peculiarities make CC:E a bit different from the games we had played with computers before. Usually player is able to give any order out which are included in the game but in this case there came situations where all we had in our hands was command confusion cards that really added some confusion to the play.
Actual battling is confusing and my insignificant experience from my service as an artillery observer in the Finnish Army has taught me that usually there are distortions in the command line are everyday event even in the drills which simulate the real situation. Command confusion bothered me a bit but as a mechanic I liked it as well as the fact that there were no tangible dice although I suppose I could have just as easily tossed some dice if it would have come to that. Anyways, I’m looking forward to play CC:E again and hopefully I can give my friend a chance to restore his honour after loosing the both games to me miserably.
Horse races are also a nice addition to the summer schedule and I have had a chance to play Maximus by Gambit Games which is company’s new release for this year. Maximus is all about betting on horses race in the ancient Circus Maximus and I know that this really isn’t a unic theme for a game. But Maximus executes the theme nicely and there is a feel of horse race in the game. Betting is not the only way to earn money in the game and the with the other options available the game offers a sufficient amount of options to win the game. The player who gets his bets right has a certain advantage in the game but still you have to move your own horses forward, collect few favours from the consules and try to knock off the other horses if the chance arises.
Maximus in an interesting game. I have a few negative comments about the graphics but the game itself is a good medium light family game and I’m looking forward to see how the game succeeds when it hits the stores. It might be just a bit too difficult for non-gamers but for those who are more into games it’s atleast worth a try.