Feb
27
I’m not a regular visitor at the Leppävaara gaming nights but it’s sometimes great to do excursions to Leppävaara and see what gamers are up to there.
There weren’t that many gamers around during the night which was kind of odd since usually there’s easily over 10 gamers and several games running simultaniously. I ended up in a table where we first played Rumis. Rumis is a abstract area enclosure game which is basically Blokus in 3D. In other words, players are stacking blocks and trying to end up having the most visible land area of player’s color on top. It’s almost impossible to fit all the blocks on the game board and left over blocks are negative points in the end.
Image by J R
Overall Rumis is light but fun stacking game which doesn’t take too long and can therefore be played multiple times during a game night. We played twise and it took us maybe 30 minutes with rules explanation and that’s not too long is it?
The second game of the revening was King of Siam which is a area control game with a hand management twist. Players are playing three different color cubes on the board and claiming control of areas on the board based on the majorities of colors on the particular area that is been scored. Players also have a set of action cards in their hands which they can use during the game and using these actions mostly means that player plays some cubes on the board. Additionally by playing cards players collect one cube of any type from the board and these cubes that player ownes resolve the winner in the end.
Image by Roberto Méndez
King of Siam is a interesting mix of hand management and area control and majorities which in its heart is not too heavy and long. The balance between playing cards and ensuring majorities of a certain color in an specific area and keeping the actions for further use is subtle and utmost important and playing your cards too early most certainly means that you’ve lost the game in the end. The biggest problem we encountered with the game was a king making situation in the end which is typically a sign of a somesort of problem with the game.
After these games we headed to a pub close by and continued with card games. First a quick round of San Juan with two and then into teaching Doppelkopf to three newbies. Won San Juan and still enjoy the game especially with two eventhough I have played the game hundreds of times.
Image by Jesus A. Perez
The meat of the bar night was Doppelkopf which is a classic ace ten game originally from Germany where it is very popular. I tried the game yesterday in BSW and was most of all confused. Doko is a trick taking game with weird trump and partnership rules. Game is played with 2 x 24 cards and the trump suit contains 26 cards in a normal game which leads to a situation where there’s a lot trumps in the play. The order of cards is also very different from any other game making it hard to understand the game and what is exactly going on in the game.
There’s also typically partnership in every deal but players don’t usually know who the partner is in the beginning of the deal (and sometimes it’s very hard to name your partner even in the later part of the deal…). There is also possibility to play solo in the game and these situations change the trumps and make the game even more difficult. Doko is definitely not a game for casual gamers and it is demanding. If you have not played any ace ten games the basic order and points of cards are odd and even if you are familiar with ace ten games there’s more than enough to wonder in the game.
In spite of the difficultness of Doppelkopf I really enjoy playing it. There’s huge amount of variation and opportunities in the game and I usually like card games that are hard to master (and play). One can’t learn games without plauing them and I feel that with Doko this phrase hit the nail on the head so now I’m eager to bring the game on the table againg soon.
Feb
15
Card game accessories
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How to store up all the games one own is typically not a problem; you store up the games you own in a shelf of some sort. This has been the case also with me before I became a geek and began frantically purchase games. The biggest problem I’ve encountered is that my card game collection is hidden thus making it a bit hard to play the games plus remember which games I even own.
I’ve tried to figure out a solution for the problem and yesterday I finally found hwat I was looking for (or I at least hope so), Carry-Lite 80 tool case.
There’s smaller plastic boxes inside the case which fit nicely two or three card games and rules for the games. Additionally there’s also room for the few taroc card boxes which don’t fit into the plastic holders. The case itself is sturdy but obviously it’s not aluminium or something else extremely durable but case is also relatively light even with the full load of cards inside it and in the end it’s also quite inexpensive – 28,50 euros is not too bad for such a great (hopefully) way to store the games.
I’ve already thinking about buying another case soon and dividing my card decks into to seperate cases. The other would be for traditional games and it would hold both the card decks and one or two books with rules for most of the games. The other would be for modern card games that are played with specifically designed cards.
Anyways, it’s great to have these games in one case:
- Oilfield
- Wizard
- Fairy Tale
- Tichu
- Bohnanza
- Guillotine
- Coloretto
- Rage
- 6 nimmt
- Sticheln
- Ziegen Kriegen
- Ligretto
- San Juan
- Sleuth
- Limits
- Doppelkopf
- Skat (French and German suits)
- Gaigel / Binokel cards with german suits
- Tarock Schafkopf with german suits
- Preference + Schnapsen (French suits)
- 32 card deck with Austrian faces
- 32 card deck with traditional Altenburg style (German suits)
- Jass deck (Austrian suits)
- 40 card deck in Spanish style
- 78 card Taroc deck (Piamonte)
- 54 card Tarock deck x 2 (Austria)
- 42 card Tarock deck (Hungary)
- 40 card Taroc deck (Piacente)
- 60 card Tarox deck (Bologna)
- 52 cards French suits (some wuold call this the normal deck)
- Romme / Canasta / Bridge decks (= 2 x 52 cards French suits)
Feb
8
It’s been awfully quiet in the gaming front for the last month. I’ve been busy, I’ve had holydays and now I’m recovering from a nasty flu. I is possible to play games online even though it would otherwise be impossible but recording podcast with the crow voice I have right now is impossible.
What have caught my attention in the recent weeks are traditional card games and books that are about traditional card games. There’s two reasons for this; I really feel that in order to understand the games today you have to know the history of the games and card games are handy because of the size of the deck but still offer incredible depth in game play.
The best source of information in games is John McLeod’s pagat.com which offers information in traditional card games and basically rules for almost every card game there is. Sites biggest problem is that it’s a bit rough looking but the content is dynamite and readily available where ever there’s a connection to web.
Obviously there are also books written on the topic and probably the number one international author today is David Parlett. I have bought two of his books the Oxford A-Z of Card Games and The Penguin Book of Card Games and both are valuable addition to my collection on book of games. Oxford A-Z of Card Games a book which simply explains rules to as many games as possible. There’s no background material which always opens up the traditional card games tarher nicely but it’s definitely portable (soft covers) and works as a quick reference when you need to find rules fast.
The Penguin Book of Card Games aims to provide information in the card games played in the western world. There are similarities with the Oxford A-Z of Card Games (rules for the same games) but the Penguin Book of Card Games digs a bit deeper and provides more information on the traditional card games. In the book games have been assorted in card game families and book explains the differences and history of each family. Book has 658 pages compared to 441 pages in the Oxford A-Z of Card Games and the idea is that there are less games presented but author has given more space for those games that are in the book.
We also have one great book in Finnish about traditional card games and that is Tarotista Texas Hold’emiin by Mikko Saari. Hard covers, beautiful design and a awsome combination of basic information of card games and rules for some of the most important (I know that this might be an issue to some) games is a quality paggage. It’s actually a pity that this is not available in English. I’m sure that there would be a market for it if someone just would dare to take the risk and publish the book in English.
There are more great books of traditional card games but these are the ones I’ve been reading lately. Feel free to comment and make some additions to this selection (Mikko and Markku especially…).
And the games I would like to play? Well, there’s a lot of them but on top of the list at the moment are Schnappsen, Doppelkopf, Cribbage, Skat, all the Tarot games and Tuppi (this last choise also reminds me of the fact that it’s nice to see so many Finnish games in the international books). The first of the list I’ve already played and enjoyed but I hope that I’ll find time and company for the rest soon.