Aug
29
Finnish Games of the Year 2008
Filed Under General, News | Leave a Comment
Finnish Toy Association picked the finalists and winners of the Game of the Year in three categories: children, family and adults. There were plenty of good games participating and these games made it to the end:
Children’s Category
* Winner : Eläinpyramidi (Tavella)
* Finalist: Koko perhe näyttelee (Tactic)
* Finalist: Muumien sanasirkus (Egmont)
Comment: I have to admit that I have not playerd any of these games. This is going to change though because I’m planning on a podcast on all the finalists and have gotten hold on most of the games.
Family Category
* Winner : Bandu (Bausack) (Competo)
* Finalist: Oregon (Lautapelit.fi)
* Finalist: Qwirkle (Competo)
Comment: We had a great selection this year in this category and some good games were left out of the final three. Bandu is a game for the whole family and is fun with anyone. Oregon is a solid game as is Qwirkle but they might have done better in the adult category because they are more complex than Bandu.
Adult’s Category
* Winner: Modern Art (Lautapelit.fi)
* Finalist: Taidolla ja Tuurilla (Wits and Wagers) (Competo)
* Finalist: Maximus (Gambit Games)
Comment: I was pretty sure that Taidolla tai Tuurilla would have won because it’s a game that is fun with gamers and non-gamers. Usually these games have done best in the competition. But this year Modern Art took the win and there’s good reasons for that: the game is excellent and Lautapelit.fi produced a Finnish version out of the game with unic graphic design. I was also pleased that Gambit Games and Maximus got among the finalists. Maximus is a solid game and a example of the possibility to develop and produce a Finnish board game in every sense.
Overall I must say that I’m very pleased with these results. It’s great to have good games winning the prizes than bad and these are games which I can recommend to anybody.
Aug
22
Lautapelisuomi – 16
Filed Under Lautapelisuomi, Podcast, Ropecon | Leave a Comment
LATAA – TÄSTÄ- LAUTAPELISUOMEN UUSIN JAKSO (.mp3)
Tässä jaksossa seuraavaa:
JOHDANTO
UUTISET
Käyn läpi Suomen Vuoden peli -ehdokkaita ja esitän oman näkemykseni jokaisen sarjan osallistujista ja mahdollisista voittajaehdokkaista. Ehdokaslistan kuten myös tänään ilmestyneen tiedon finalisteista löydät täältä.
LAUTAPELISUOMEN KESÄKILPAILUN VOITTAJA
Lautapelisuomen kesäkilpailuun liittyi viisi kuva-arvoitusta, jotka osallistujien piti tietää. Nämä pelit olivat Gulo Gulo, Settlers of Catan: The Seafarers, Chinatown, Maailman ympäri 80 päivässä sekä Ubongo. Pelejä yhdistävä tekijä puolestaan on, että Competo on julkaissut tai julkaisee pelit.
Kilpailun voitti Mika Porkka ja palkinnoksi hänelle on luvassa Competon lahjoittamat uunituoreet suomeksi julkaistut Chinatown [ BGG] ja Qwirkle [ BGG].
Kiitokset kaikille osallistujille, joita oli ennätysmäärä ja onnittelut voittajalle! Jos sinua kiinnostaa arvonnan tulokset, ne löytyvät tämän linkin takaa.
Käy tutustumassa Competon pelivalikoimaan osoitteessa www.competo.fi.
ROPECON RAPORTTI
Käyn läpi tunnelmia Ropeconista sekä tarinoin peleistä, joita pelasin conin aikana. Mukaan mahtui yhtä ja toista mielenkiintoista ja muutama peli, joita ei tarvitse pelata enää toista kertaa.
MARKKU JAATISEN SCIFILAUTAPELILUENTO @ ROPECON
Minulla oli ilo ja kunnia nauhoittaa Markku “ JoeLamer” Jaatisen luento scifilautapeleistä Ropeconin lauantaina. Markku on intohimoinen scifisti ja esitelmä antaa kattavan kuvan tämän hetken scifilautapelikentästä kuten myös scifilautapelien historiasta. Kiitokset Markulle luennosta.
Suosittelen myös, että seuraat kuunnellessasi Markun PowerPoint -esitystä, joka selventää esityksen kulkua melkoisesti. Esityksen löydät täältä.
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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 jakson musiikista.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Aug
17
Weekend of gaming: Wie Verhext!, Stone Age and Rheinländer
Filed Under Rheinländer, Session, Stone Age, Wie Verhext! | Leave a Comment
I had a great weekend of gaming since I was able to play games both on Saturday and Sunday. Here’s comments on some of the games I played during the weekend.
First game that deserves some space is Wie Verhext! which was finalist in the Spiel des Jahres competition this year and is a Alea publication. Usually these ingredients guarantee quality games and, although not a great game, Wie Verhext! is solid family game which offers entertainment atleast for some time.
In Wie Verhext! players try to gather ingredients and money and build chauldrons and shelves to gain points. Game uses cards for determening which roles are played in a round and different roles gives you certain benefits. The twist is that the players who leads with a role card can be overrun by a later player who has played the same role card and he can be again overrun by later player and so on. This creates a situation where leading a trick is usually not very nice and you end up getting nothing if you are the first player. There is also a possibility to use a secondary action in a card is you don’t want to overrun the previous players; secondary action is not as beneficial to you but you don’t have to lead the next trick.
There’s quite high luck element in the game and obviously some bluffing is also involved in the game. I played with three and five and I have to say that with five the game becomes a bit too luck driven. Every player chooses five roles for each of the round and it is really difficult to be able to read other players minds and choose roles that would give you the maximal benefit. With three there’s more choises and less luck but game looses some interaction which basically is also a positive feature in the game. I like the game but it’s not a game which I must buy.
I had also a possibility to play Stone Age which is another Spiel des Jahres finalist of the year. I had played one game in BSW and likes the game so much that when I saw it been offered cheap second hand I bought the game. Stone Age is a mix of mechanics from different games which are moulded into a new theme and game concept. Some might say that this is not enough for a game to be interesting but my group seemed to like the game as well as did I. Eurogames are not thematic and Stone Age is not an exception in this sense but what it offers is a solid game with smooth game mechanics, few dice to add some luck and several ways to win the game.
It’s also great to find older games that you have not heard about which surprise you. My game of the weekend in this category was Rheinländer by Reiner Knizia from the year 1999. Rheinländer is game which is relatively unknown probably because it is hard to obtain. It’s a clever card driven area majority game which can be played in 30 minutes even with 5 players. Some might say that there’s something similar in the game compared to China (or Kardinal und König as it’s called in German) and I have to say that I felt the similarity. Scoring of the game is a bit complex as is the case in many Knizia games but otherwise the game is easy to teach and play. I personally like area majority games and Rheinländer seemed to be one of the games you really should keep an eye on if happen to come by it in the future.
Aug
12
Nokia Board Game Club session: Wealth of Nations, For Sale and Ligretto
Filed Under For Sale, Ligretto, Session, Wealth of Nations | Leave a Comment
Ahter a great weekend at Ropecon in Espoo it was time to get back to the normal routines and a Tuesday night’s game club at Nokia Board Game Club.
I arrived right in time for a game of For Sale which is a great auction filler before the meaty games of the night.For Sales auction mechanic is really awsome. First parts open bidding for the currency for the end game’s play is simple but still effective and game is easy to play with anyone. For Sale is not a game which is played many times ina row but there definitely is a room for it in the middle of games because it plays fast and offers good amount of fun compared to the playtime.
The second game of the night was Wealth of Nations which Saku brought with him and wanted to play. I ended up playing the game partly because it seemed interesting and partly because Saku said that it was particularly suitable for accountants (which is my part time profession). Wealth of Nations is a pure economic game where players try to build up an economic engine which produces raw material efficiently and converts the produced goods into money and further production capacity.
The basic premise of the game is thus really interesting but I have to say that the game isn’t. The game is far too long compared to the content it offers. Especially the trading phase drags on slowly even if players try to speed up their thinking process and if any of the players suffer from the dreadful AP downtime exceeds a bearable level. Our four players game came to an end maybe 2/3 of the whole game and we had already played approximately 2,5 hours. I’m not a huge friend of overly long games and if game takes over 3 hours it really has to have someting in it to make it worth the effort I’m putting in to it. In Wealth of Nations case the meat in the game is enough for an 1-2 hours game but not longer than that and I can’t see a way to reduce the playing time in a reasonable level. My BGG rating for the Walth of Nations is a solid 3 which means that I’m not going to play the game again but I’m sure there is an audience for the game; if you really enjoy long economy games maybe this is your stuff.
The last game of the night was Ligretto which has recently been published in Finnish and therefore it can be found all over Finland soon. I tought the game to the three other players in my table and we began to slap the cards on the table. Speed games aren’t the games I usually enjoy the most but Ligretto is a good game in it’s category. It plays fast and has a luck element in it which balances the possible skill differences between the players. Ligretto is also a game which gets better with more players. You can combine decks to introduce more players in the game and the more you have players in the game the fiercer the players fight over the victory. It’s total chaos but still quite entertaining which was much needed after the struggle to finish Wealth of Nations.
Aug
4
Lautapelisuomi – Lautapelinurkka – Wings of War Deluxe
Filed Under Lautapelinurkka, Podcast, Wings of War Deluxe | Leave a Comment
Lautapelisuomen lautapelinurkassa esitellään tällä kertaa Wings of War Deluxe.
Kuuntele tai lataa mp3-versio -tästä-
Kuuntele tai lataa m4a-versio -tästä-
LISÄTIEDOT
Lisätietoja pelistä löytyy joko Boardgamegeekistä tai pelin omalta kotisivulta.
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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 jakson musiikista.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download