Oct
21
N-BGC session: Jungle Speed; Easy Come, Easy Go; Aquaretto; Basari; Wits & Wagers
Filed Under Aquaretto, Arriba, Basari, Easy Come, Easy Go, General, Session, Wits and Wagers | 3 Comments
I haven’t been able to participate in Nokia Board Game Club’s game nights in a while and it was great to be on the road to the Scandic Hotel Espoo where the night is held. There were four of us which is relatively small amount of people and I don’t remember when I would have seen as few gamers but four is enough to play games (I’m usually quite happy even with 2 players).
We began by eating and some short and easy games. First was Jungle Speed which I had playerd couple of times before and hadn’t have too much fun. Jungle speed is a speed game that’s innocuou, causes no pain to play and is over before you know it. Unfortunately that’s more of less all there is in the game and I know many competitors in the same category which are much better games.
The second game was even worse because it took longer and actually we ended it premature. The designer of the second game was no-one else than the good doctor himself, Reiner Knizia, but we all know that every designer fail from time to time and Mr Knizia is a mortal man in this sense. Easy Come, Easy Go was the name of the game and it’s a Yachtzee on stereoids and no matter how much you pums stereoids in it it’s just a variant of Yachtzee. As it usually turns out, the only game I win during a game night is the one that I like the least and this fact was once again proven with Easy Come, Easy go.
After the random dice tossing we settled to play real games and desided to go with Aquaretto.
Aquaretto is a sequel to the Spiel des Jahres winner Zooloretto and the game takes place in water zoo. Players try to build up the biggest zoo and collect the most profitable species. Compared with Zooloretto Aquaretto has much more complex point system which makes the game more challenging for the non-gamers. We had one in our group and she seemed to be a bit lost in the beginning and only slowly grasping what was going on. Nonetheless, we had fun and worst **hole won; that’ll be Phil (and I wasn’t the one who made this up…) 
Fourth game was Basari by Reinhard Staupe. This was a game of bluffing and bartering and I have to say that it felt fresh eventhough the game is light and luck driven and there’s several similar games on the market. Basari in by no means a heavy game and there’s a heavy luck element in the game but luck and bluffing walk hand in hand which evens it out a bit. I didn’t quite find the theme incorporated in the game but mechanically it works well and was fun to play. We also had interesting moments in the game when one of us played totally random and caused a few sighs in the opponents. Randomness did not have an efect on the performance though and because I collected less points I shouldn’t complain or judge; I just should admit that I couldn’t play the game well enough.
We still had time for one short game and chose Wits & Wagers which is, even after rather heavy gaming, one of the best trivia games on the market. We have it now also in Finnish which should increase the replayability value of the game considerably. We played with the new edition’s rules and I have to say that the changes that have been introduced in the game are good and make the game even more enjoyable.
I had fun and I hope I’ll be able to attend the game night after I get back from New York – yes folks, I’ll see the presidental elections and am able to run from the hideous darkness of autumn that has crept to Finland.
Oct
17
BGF podcast in English – episode 1
Filed Under Boardgaming Finland Podcast, Podcast | Leave a Comment
LISTEN OR DOWNLOAD THE EPISODE [ HERE] (.mp3)
Finally, I did find the time to record an episode in English for the international audience. There’s interesting things happening in Finland and I feel that you should be kept informed about it.
In this episode I interview Jussi Autio the CEO of Tuonela Productions about the company, their products and also about Jussi himself; who is is and why does he design games.
I’m also proud to announce the first international Boardgaming Finland contest. The prize for the winner is The Club [ BGG] from Tuonela Productios. You can find further information on the contest by listening the episode
SHOW NOTES
Introduction 0:00 – 2:56
Interview 2:56 – 31:50
More information on Tuonela Production’s games [ BGG] [ Their website]
Map of the Spiel booths [ link]
Contest 31:50 – 34:20
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I’m really looking forward to receiving feedback on the show! You can also send suggestions for the upcoming topics of the podcast. I want also to thank Eminor and Mikko Putkonen for the music of the episode.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Oct
5
Saturday game session: Advanced Civilization
Filed Under Advanced Civilization, General, Session | 2 Comments
There are some games which are true classics and Advanced Civilization from Avalon Hill has definitely place among them. Is the grand daddy of all civilization games and is a beast: 3-8 players and playing time easily 11 hours or more. When the opportunity came I really had to reserve a seat to play the game eventhough it ment that I had to wake up 7am on Saturday morning and spend 3 hours in train during the day.
There were seven of us of which 3 had not played the game before. Advanced Civilization is not too complex from the rules point of view. Sure there’s a lot nitty gritty details but rounds are similar to each other and if there’s someone, who knows the rules well, there’s absolutely no problems with the game. The first major issue in the game was who got what civilization and we ended up draw lots on it. There are some civs that have worse starting positions than the others but none has superior position in the beginning – one should not waste time in this phase although if you get some civilization you don’t like you have to suffer with it 12 hours.
The game itself is rather simple: you move, build cities, collect income, collect resource cards and calamities, trade, suffer from the calamities you have in your hand and buy technological advances. The first few rounds don’t take too long but after a while players have lots of troops and cities and cards to trade and calamities take a lot of time to resolve i.e. there’s lots of downtime in the game no matter what. I’d say the game is bast with 7 or 8 players but obviously it also takes the most time with more players involved.
There’s also some other problems with the game. Firstly, it’s really vunerable to AP and if there are several players suffering from it turns take ages. Secondly, if you are left behind either by bad luck or inexperience you don’t have much of a chance to bounce back into the game later on: others will have better technological advances which makes them superior in most cases. In a game that lasts for an hour it’s not too bad to know that you’re left behind but when the game lasts still for another five or six the situation if much different.
I have mixed feelings – there’s elements in the game which are disturbing but still the game is interesting. It’s thematic and probably the best civilization game you can buy. Gaming experience is intense and time flies when you play the game. There is also a strange feel of youth in the game while Sid Mayer’s Civilization was the first computer game I played a lot and the game looks like early nineties.
It would be cool to own the game but the price of the game is more or less 150 euros and that’s a lot of money for any game. With the reprints of old games coming to the market all the time there might be a possibility to see Advanced Civilization reprinted but somehow I not sure that’s going to happen because people are too busy to play games of this magnitude.
I enjoyed the game and have to thank Tuomas and Hannu for organizing the event. I hope will be able to play the game sooner than later again.