First week of my summer vacation and one live session which was organized the same Monday that the results of the SdJ came out. Thus the plan was to play the missing SdJ nominees to be able to comment them in the coming episode of Lautapelisuomi podcast.
We began the session with Qwixx which I’ve played quite a bit and which is a solid game in SdJ category. It’s got dice and it’s easy enough to be played with anybody. Qwixx was my favorite for the SdJ but I’m happy with the winner Hanabi and the third nominee Augustus is also excellent family game.
As we waited to get in to Rotterdam bar we had time for The Hobbit Card Game of which I got a Finnish review copy. I actually like this game quite a bit after several plays. It’s a rather simple trick taking game which can be introduced to people not familiar of the concept easily. The team element also serves the game well as does the element of chaos which not knowing the exact distribution of cards brings. Evil side has a definite advantage in the game but I also think that it makes the game more interesting because it would be dull if good guys would always win the game.
Once indoors we set out to play Brügge which I had pimped and done some paste ups of my German cards. First play of the game was a struggle with German cards but this time game ran much more smoothly. Unfortunately it didn’t make the game better at all in my eyes even if the playing the game was easier. I don’t fancy the general concept of the game where cards are used in several different actions. There’s just too much options in a turn and it slows the game down a lot. Since the idea is also to build an engine I can’t understand why there’s 180 different cards with different actions on them. It’s impossible to build a strategy in the game when you have no idea whether you will get the cards needed for it and you just end up playing some card. Brügge is not a game for me but I’m sure there’s a bunch of Race for the Galaxy fans who also like this game (it reminds me of RftG).
Last game of the session was Legends of Andor which was the last of the Kennerspiel des Jahres nominee I had not played. This is a cooperative fantasy game by Michael Menzel who is known for the many of the best graphic design in board games. Legends of Andor is built so that rules of the game are introduced while playing the game. While I like the idea of learning the rules when running through the campaigns I still prefer reading the rules before hand. It speeds up the game significantly when even one player knows how the game works before group sets out to play it.
Legends of Andor was a plesant surprise and we had fun time playing it. It has a video game like structure where game moves forward with preset events. Mechanisms in the game were simple but fun and there’s a fun ride ahead of the company who sets out to play through the chapters of the game. I’m also pretty sure that now that it won the KSdJ there’s going to be expansions which add more content to the game. I’m happy that Legends of Andor won the KSdJ because I did not like the other nominees at all and Legends of Andor is a solid game.