HelCon II - Sunday

Sunday began with a game of Tom Tube against Ville, who hadn't played before. I won the game with a single point - it was very exciting and close match. I like the game, definitely.

During that game, more people arrived and Mikko K. joined us. I wanted to try Flaschenteufel (one of the Essen games I got), so that's what we played. It's a great game! It's also a rather good conversion of the Robert Louis Stevenson story The Bottle Imp. It's a trick-taking game. There are three suits, with cards numbered from 1-37 (except 19). The card mix is complicated, with red suit focused on high cards, yellow on low cards and blue in the middle. Fortunately there's a player aid included. Highest card wins. All cards below the current price of the imp bottle are trumps (it begins at 19). If you win a trick with trumps, the price of the bottle drops to that level (you can only sell the bottle with a lower price than you paid for it) and you get the bottle. If you die with the bottle in your hands, the price is your immortal soul. In the game, you don't have to go to Hell - you only score negative points. It was brilliant fun and the game went straight up my favourite trick-taking games list.

Then something heavier! Amun-Re, that is. We got us a five-player game of the pyramid-building and it was a blast. It was also a rather curious game, in which I learned that I've been playing the game wrong (limiting the power cards a bit too much), were temple level was four for the whole New Kingdom (and I was the only player without farmers) and the winner got four (4!) bonus cards in the last scoring. Crazy, but entertaining. Didn't mind my fourth place, it was entertaining enough.

Next up was the last scheduled game I was about to participate: Michael Schacht's Industria. It was rather interesting, even though it turned out we played one rule wrong (sold three tiles each turn, not four). I did fairly well, because I got some nice technology working for my favour. It's a good game, but doesn't reach the instant-buy list. I'd like to play it more, though.

Then it was time to pack for me. Well - we did squeeze in a two-round game of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde which my team unfortunately lost. Still, it's one of my favourites when it comes to trick-taking. It's certainly tricky.

And that's it. It was a rather marvellous weekend. Time spent with Tommy and Laura before the event was great, as usual and the event was better than last year. It was, in general, one of the best gaming events I've ever been to. Thanks go to Tommy for organizing it and everyone I played games with.