January 2004 Archives

I heard Rio Grande Games is doing an English version of Funkenschlag. The new version will be called Power Grid. It has - obviously - better components and also streamlined rules, so it should play in two hours or less. Sounds absolutely great, if they don't streamline it too much. Anyway buying it will be very tempting, just for the new components.

Boardgamegeek has a nice GeekBuddy feature, too. We'll see what they'll do with it, but I'm listing my buddies already.

I wrote a short review of Ta Yü yesterday and that inspired me to play a game. I played with Johanna and she beat me... But it was pretty close, just 25-21. It's interesting how we both had ten connections, but as she had 5x5 and I had 3x7, she won. The scoring system is really rather simple but also very clever.

We were playing in less-than-optimal environment, so I didn't bother with laying out the tiles, we just drew from the bag. I didn't miss the chance to pick a tile marked with circles, at least much.

I did some changes to my blog roll on the sidebar. It's now provided by Bloglines, which is a pretty neat service. I added a subscription link on the sidebar, as well. I highly recommend you check it out, if you're still reading this blog and others in the old-fashioned way.

Our café games were quite typical yesterday. We did have six people present, though. I ended up playing Go against a new opponent, whose name escapes me now. I won both games, first by a healthy margin of around 100 points, second with smaller difference (but then again, there were more handicap stones).

I didn't play much Gang of Four, which has become immensely popular. Which means I'll be bringing something else next time...

The University club met for the first time this year on Sunday. The attendance was pretty good (I think there were 16 of us, we had three tables most of the time) and the session was very pleasant in general.

The first game I played was Finstere Flure, which made it's debut now. We had four players, which I think is a pretty good amount. We used teleporters and crystals, but not the turning stones. I think they are too complicated and used too rarely. Teleporters made a difference this time, I think they are an excellent addition to the game. Ari, a newbie, won by getting three of his crew out. Erkka came second with two guys out, while me and Robert, only people who knew the game before got only one piece out.

After that, we needed a quick game for six players. Nodwick: The Card Game fit the bill well. It took a while before the people figured it out, but we got the game running pretty smoothly. Robert assembled his henchman first and won the game. The game is better with six than with three, but I'd rather play it in Finnish (now we had to play in English because of Robert), the deal-making would be swifter.

I really wanted to play Domaine (which I'd really love to call Löwenherz, because that's much better name, but it would just cause too much confusion - it's confusing already!) and got my mind (I usually do). I love the game! I've played original Löwenherz twice and I liked it, but Domaine is even better. It cuts the time by removing the most boring part of the original game. Some blame Domaine for being luck-heavy, but I don't mind. It's exciting, it's pretty fast, what else you need? Well, victories - I didn't win, but came second when I managed to grab the royal city in the end.

Then we tried Wo ist Jack the Ripper?, one of the Krimsus Krimskrams-Kiste games. The German cards didn't bother us much and the game went pretty swiftly. But not perhaps swiftly enough... The game has a nice theme and the cards support it decently, but the mechanics aren't really that unique or interesting. Play or draw two reseach cards, play or draw one action card, that's it. Players try to meld the right research cards to fulfill requirements set by story cards (one of which is always available for all players). Whoever manages to meld the correct cards gets the story and then comes the next one. When all the 12 story cards have been claimed, the winner is the player with the most points (story cards are worth 1-3 points). Action cards give benefits and hinder other players, in a very typical "take that" way.<--

Wo ist Jack the Ripper?

It's a fun little game, but nothing special. The German text is a bit of a problem, because the game might be a good choice for non-gamers who are interested in the theme. The German cards make it difficult to "sell" the game for non-gamers. Gamers will find more interesting games, but if you're into the theme and don't mind the slightly boring mechanics, the game isn't expensive (just over five euros at Adam).

Lasse (who placed third in the Catan World Championships last year) wanted to play Attika, so that's what we did. He even won the game, by connecting two shrines in the end of the game. He played well, I didn't. When will I learn the secret of Attika? Never, it seems...

Crokinole was a must, of course. I don't want to lug the board around for nothing, you know. We played three four-player matches during the evening. It's slowly rising on the lists of most played games of our club.

Jarno and Ari had played a game of Tom Tube earlier (totally spontaneous move, quite surprising really) and I wanted to play, too. So I challenged Ilari after our Crokinole match. He won by one point, he had three more energy tokens than I so my two-move lead wasn't enough. It was a great game, though. I made some good tubes there, but so did Ilari.

Evening ended with one of the Crokinole games, but before that, we had a five-player game of Pirate's Cove. It was a blast! It's a great game, everybody seems to like it. Lasse took this one home, he hauled twice a load of ten or so treasure chests to the treasure island. You can't really stop a lead like that. I hoped I would beat Ari to the second place, especially as I had five points worth of cards in my hand, but it turned out he had too. So, he kept his lead over me and I remained third. Well, it was entertaining nevertheless.

Our Hammer of the Scots match was very interesting. It took us about 30 minutes to go through the rules and set up the game. The game itself took three hours and ended as the victory of the English, played by yours truly.

It was an exciting game. Last time I played (in Lahti) I played the Scots and didn't stand a chance. Olli did the job much better. I kept count of the nobles, you see... In the beginning of the game, English player controls 11 nobles and the Scots barely three. Well, Olli had a pretty good first year and won five nobles for the Scottish cause while the English forces just whittled.

From then on it was pretty close. The noble count fluctuated between 6-8 and 7-7, the advantage being on the Scots. William Wallace did great work, appearing suddenly in different places, picking fights. However, Edward I spent lots of time in Scotland, too. The two met twice. First time, Wallace escaped. The second time Edward had Wallace cornered and without a chance to escape and finished him off.

However, killing Wallace brought the Scots to a fury and in the end of the next year, Scots controlled nine nobles. After that, only two years would remain. I was able to secure one more noble (Dunbar, which was originally converted to Scots by the Norse fleet) before the final year. I would have to get two more nobles on my side to win the game.

I was a bit disappointed as I didn't get the King in the last levy. However, I did get three units of knights and the Lancaster archers. I also got a pretty good hand of cards (four 2's and a 1). With the first two cards, I brought my forces to Lanark. Scots reinforced Fife (which I managed to conquer only once during the game - in the other hand, I held Argyll, Lennox and Methien most of the time), so I didn't go there. On the third turn, I attacked Atholl with two knights. I got Atholl on my side. More battles were fought around Atholl, when the Scots attacked. My knights managed to finish off Moray and converted Comyn on my side.

The final touch to the magnificent campaing was delivered by the Lancaster archers and knights who raided Lochaber, securing Comyn's return to the English side. Lochaber's defenders were killed and the archers marched forward to hold Moray, just to taunt the enemy.

It was a good war. It was close and exciting. I had pretty good luck on my side during the last turn (Scots had Herald, but Dunbar didn't fail me), as my knights crushed the opposition fiercely. I am highly satisfied with that campaign. The greatest moments of the Scots included a raid by Wallace, which reached Carrick. From there Wallace went to winter in Selkirk Forest, which he left through Lothian, going back to safety in Methien. As I said, Scots held Fife most of the time and I held Methien and Lennox, that was the border. Scots did conquer Methien and Lennox and occupied them for a while.

I believe that Scots have actually a pretty good chance in the game. Decisive victory might be hard to come by unless they get to kill Edward (and that needs to happen twice!), but marginal victory is certainly possible. I'm looking forward to playing the game again.

The friendly people at Krimsus Krimskrams-Kiste (what a lovely name!) sent me some games: In 80 Karten um die Welt, Wo ist Jack the Ripper?, Höhlengrölen (another lovely name) and Strand-Cup. I got them yesterday and now I'm printing English rules for them (unfortunately it looks like my trusty old printer is going to break down any day now). The games appear to be light, but interesting. We'll see, we'll see... Hopefully I'll get to try some of them next Sunday.

But, today, I've got something else: I've booked a match of Hammer of the Scots. That's something I've been looking forward a while now.

Today was the first time our café group met on Monday and I'd say it was a success. Total of six people played games. Afternoon began with a 13x13 Go match, which I won. It was a close match, though.

Meanwhile our number had grown to four, so we started a game of my prototype. I've been thinking about different card game ideas and finally went on with a Sedma group game. Sedma is a Czech trick-taking game, in which tricks aren't won by the highest card. Cards can only be beaten by cards of equal rank. Finnish readers might know Ristikontra. Then there's Ukranian or Polish game Hola and Hungarian Zsírozás.

My game idea combines elements from all of the games. It is also played on a different deck. I used a slightly modified Gang of Four deck (removed all the special cards, mostly). It was certainly interesting, but I need to test the game more, I wasn't completely satisfied with it. It might also be because our team (it's a partnership game) lost... But, what's best, today I invented a cool theme for the game and the theme makes actually some sense. Very little, but it's better than most themes I came up with. It will be a pirate game... We'll see if I'll be able to put together a pirate-themed deck before board game club, which is on Sunday.

Well, since I had the Gang of Four deck with me, we couldn't avoid playing it. Ari had time for three rounds and hey, guess what, he won all three rounds! Second round was particularly spectacular. He had two gangs of four, which left the rest of us with 14 or 15 cards. Then Ari left and got replaced by Nestori and we played six rounds. This time Ilari was the King of Four and gathered just three points. He won all but one round. It's certainly an interesting and entertaining game.

Finally I played two 19x19 matches of Go against Juho. These were pretty fast cases, about five minutes each. We played fast and the situations soon evolved pretty badly for Juho. He resigned both games quickly. While Juho might be better than I am on 9x9, I'm quite happy I still reign supreme on 19x19. My superior skill shows there, as I can control the territories better. However, I pointed out Juho's greatest weakness to him (his opening moves were too small) and I expect him to play much better next time. He's fast to learn...

I wrote a review of Bohnanza. You can read it on my Finnish site.

I think Bohnanza is one of those games every gamer should know. It's a classic. That said, it's not of my real favourites, thus my modest review of three stars out of five. Still, I recommend it highly for people looking for fun, original card game that's suitable for non-gamers as well as gamers. Originality is Bohnanza's greatest strength.

We had some trouble getting to sleep last night, so instead of trying to sleep desperately, we made some late-night food and played two rounds of Anathema. The game certainly works with two players.

However, it feels a bit lucky - after all, many times the results depend on who plays a card first (say, if both players have a same-numbered card). There's a significant advantage for the last player, I think. But then again, it also means the game is easy and relaxing to play. But that remains tested...

I also have to make a small correction here. Finnish Casino isn't exactly Royal Casino. 2 of Spades and 10 of Diamonds (the small and large Casino, worth 1 and 2 points respectively) are worth 15 and 16 when they are in your hand and thus can capture more cards. They are also the reason why I think Anathema is actually necessary - you don't have to remember which cards were worth extra points. I haven't played Canasta, but I think I'd appreciate having a Canasta Caliente deck to play. All the special rules are fine, if you play the game regularly (and thus play little else), but trying to remember it all if you play every now and then can be quite painful.

The infamous café games started today. The main theme of these sessions is Go and as it turned out, I played a ton of it. I played several games against Juho, both larger (13x13) and smaller (9x9, very fast games). One session and Go is already on my 10's list!

The curiosity of the Go session was a rengo we played - a four-player game! Me and Juho led our teams, I joined with Ari and Juho played with Olli. It was certainly an interesting game, even though the end result was bit of a massacre. But I'd certainly like to play more four-player games! I think it's also a pretty good learning experience for the less experienced participants.

However, before all that, we played three rounds of Anathema. Ari and Juho learnt the rules pretty fast, the game is certainly quite easy. There are some trickier bits, mostly those about more complex builds. Nothing as tricky as opening the shrinkwrap of the cards, though. Ari stormed the game, winning after three rounds with a healthy margin. He ended up with 19 points, so one more round would've been enough for him the get a real victory (game ends at 21 points).

Anathema is fun, at least with three players. Is it something I'll play again and again - well, we'll see. I expect it to hit my fives list this year. Tens list is another thing, and I'm less sure about that.

I played a game of Gang of Four against three Swiss guys. I didn't do too good - I came third this time. It was a pretty quick game with lots of quick rounds and lots of points.

My browser crashed in the middle of it, but fortunately we were able to resume the game without trouble. We lost that hand, but that's all. Oh, and it was my tenth game of Gang of Four - thus, the game made it on my new gaming milestones page.

Today I got the new Anathema card game by APE Games. I won it a while ago and now it arrived.

I have yet to try it, but the rules look simple enough. The basic game is pretty much basic Casino (actually, it isn't - it's Royal Casino, which is the way Casino is played in Finland and Sweden), so I don't think it can go much wrong (but of course, some might find the game play too identical to Casino). Advanced rules add some special effects to certain cards. That's something I'm ready to skip in the first times I try the game.

But, the card art. It's done by Drew Tucker, whose work I like a lot. It's just brilliant, simply the best card game art I've ever seen. It's a deck full of pictures that equal the best CCG card art. Very beautiful! Of course, it depends on if you like Drew Tucker's style or not, the APE Games' Anathema page has examples.

Can't wait to try this one!

I did an A-Z list of games. It's available in the Geek as a GeekList. Feel free to comment it here or there.

Finnish readers should note that Knizia's brilliant book Dice Games Properly Explained is available from Suomalainen kirjakauppa and Bookplus. The price is very reasonable 10 euros.

This time the Gang of Four cave had some people in it and I got a game going - not without two false starts, though. Once again there was a leader who collected barely four points during the game. As usual, I came in second, with a pretty high score of 71 points. I did better than that, but in the last round my good (possibly even winning) hand was foiled by a surprising straight flush. That's life.

I wanted to play some games this morning. I first went to check out the Gang of Four web site, but I was the only player present there. Thus I went to Brettspielwelt. I couldn't find any games of Puerto Rico or Attika, so I settled with Ra.

I won the first game. My first two ages scored negative points, but in the last age I scored over 40 points! 30 of them came from monuments I had amassed during the earlier ages... I had seven different monuments and then some sets. I was probably more surprised than my opponents! It was my first ever Ra victory! Hooray!

The second game didn't go that well. With a bit longer third age it might have been better, but the Ra tiles came up pretty fast. The only player who used all his sun tiles in the third age won the game and I don't that was a coincidence.

I played a game of Gang of Four online. I was quite satisfied with both the online system (I got a game fairly soon) and my performance. I didn't win, but I was second. I even managed to win few hands! We had a good (or lucky) player in the table, who only got five points, so I didn't have a chance to win the game. Still, I won two hands and lost two hands but didn't collect lots of points while at it.

Gang of Four is really growing on me. It's 9 rating is well deserved, it's certainly one of the better card games for three or four players.

I was fortunate enough to get a free copy of the Finnish edition of Die Neuen Entdecker from the game's publisher Marektoy. The Finnish edition is identical with the German, as it is done in Germany by Kosmos as far as I know, so it looks brilliant.

I played it with Johanna yesterday. I enjoyed it, but Johanna was less enthusiastic. She found the game slightly frustrating - perhaps it's a step too real. She didn't like the possibility of wasting her money on tiles that won't fit, especially as she was stuck on her expeditions in the early game. So we won't be playing the game again, I suppose.

Also, the game isn't at it's best when played with just two players. With more players, it's probably more interesting. I can't really compare with the old Entdecker, as I've played that only once and that's many years ago.

The Finnish rules left one question: there are letters on some of the tiles. What's that for? All the rules say is that they're not for the basic game. Well, yeah, Sherlock, I can figure that out - but it would be nice to tell what they are for.

2004 started with a small meeting with Juho and Olli, who are probably pretty high on my regular opponents list. We met at restaurant Telakka, which is a nice place except it's a bit too small. That wouldn't be a problem, but when the place is that small, it's hard to have enough distance to the smokers. I'm not going there again to play games, because there are places where I can play without getting smell of smoke on my clothes.

I was planning to start the year with a game of Chinese origin (since that has been the way to do it), but instead played Bonobo Beach with Juho when Olli didn't show up. I won the game with a pretty high score. Olli showed up just before we finished.

It was time for the year-opening Chinese game - the honour went to Gang of Four this year. It was Juho's game, for sure. He scored three points in the first deal, but after that, none. None. I got 80 points in one deal and after six deals, I had 100 points. Olli had 62 while Juho still had his three. Amazing - he's pretty good with his cards, I'd say. I would think it twice before playing for money against Juho.

Flaschenteufel is my favourite trick-taker, so it was next. I started well, scoring -9 points for the first deal. D'oh. Well, during the first three deals, we all got the bottle once so I actually ended up being in the lead. I didn't give it away after that. Olli continued to hold the bottle for few rounds and when the last round began, I was soundly in lead with 144 points. Juho had 102 and Olli merely 19. Unfortunately, it was me who got the cursed bottle in the last deal. However, it didn't bring me down. The Imp's Trick was friendly and I only lost six points. Olli took lots of points, so the final results were 68 points for Olli, 135 points for Juho and, luckily, 138 points for me.

Then it was time for another three-player staple game, Sticheln. I consider it one of my stronger games and as it goes, I won this time with a healthy margin: 57, 31, -11. Juho was the less fortunate player this time. As a curiosity, I had yellow as my misery colour in three or four of the five deals. It was my lucky colour this time, it seems.

We wrapped up the afternoon with two games of Bonobo Beach. First one was vicious: Juho won with -8 points. In the next game we all got positive points and Olli won the game with 17 points. It's quite interesting and vicious game. Having to play all your scoring tokens can be quite a burden in the end, you definitely have to watch out. There are lots of very bad locations available in the end... In the first game, we voluntarily took locations with -4 or -6, just to avoid even worse spots (worst being about -32 or something like that, heavy negatives with two doubles next to them). Bonobo is a very clever little game. It's also very heavily tactical game. There's really no place for strategic thinking, it's all react react react. Solid 8 rating from me.

There's another great issue of The Games Journal out. This time the best feature is the article about agonizing decisions. It's certainly a good read.

Here it is - the fabled games of 2003 overview. Enjoy. As it turned out, I played some games after I had posted this on mailing lists, but fortunately the data is still correct... It's always interesting to make this list, though it's also quite annoying to try to select a single best game.

My goal this year was to play 100 different games. The goal was passed easily. Thanks for Tommy and his Essen games and the flood of promo games I got in the year's end. For too many games I feel I haven't played them enough, which is a pity. But I'll try to stop whining about that, because the world is full of games I haven't played enough. This is the third year I didn't play enough Princes of Florence, and I guess I'll just have to be satisfied with that.

Numbers in parentheses refer to last year.

Total number of games played: 557 (351 last year)
Different games played: 123 (79)
Games I played first time this year: 80 (44)

Best game released in 2003:
Sunda to Sahul. Looks and feels unique, is great fun, I'm good at it. What else do you need? Thanks to Don Bone for sending me the review copy, I would've missed this one for sure without it.

Best new game in 2003:
Choose the best of 80 more and less interesting games - that's always so easy! Let's split it up a bit, shall we. Best card game is Flaschenteufel (and there are plenty of good games just below). Then there's always Crokinole and we'll wrap it up with Age of Steam. Many good games are left out, but that's life!

Worst game of 2003:
Time Control, without a doubt. What misery!

Prettiest game in 2003:
Pirate's Cove, with a honorary mention going to other Days of Wonder games. Excellent work there! My Crokinole board is also a thing of beauty.

Exactly what I was waiting for:
Crokinole. Much hyped, well worth all the hype.

Biggest disappointment:
Mare Nostrum. Three-hour endgame just killed the game for me. I haven't mustered enough interest to even try it again.

Then the numbers. First let's start with 10's and 5's lists. Second number notes how many games I played last year or "new" if I hadn't played the game before.

100's:
Go (101/17)

10's:
Lost Cities (30/34)
Coloretto (25/new)
Crokinole (20/new)
Battle Line (18/14)
Sunda to Sahul (17/new)
King Lui (15/new)
Lord of the Rings: Confrontation (13/2)
Sticheln (13/new)
Puerto Rico (12/30)
Mamma Mia! (11/new)

5's:
PitchCar (9/new)
Zèrtz (9/22)
Balloon Cup (8/new)
Top Speed (8/new)
Attika (7/new)
Alhambra (6/new)
Carcassonne (6/24)
Gang of Four (6/new)
6 Nimmt (5/11)
Africa (5/16)
Amun-Re (5/new)
East-West (5/new)
Land Unter (5/new)
Ra (5/new)

One time games: 47

As it was last year, once again the lists are full of new games. Such is life. Notable losers are Puerto Rico, Carcassonne, Zèrtz, Web of Power, Africa, Villa Paletti, all of which inhabited the 10's list last year. Puerto Rico is still there, but with only third of the games I played last year. Biggest winners are LotR: Confrontation, which I got for myself this year and, of course, Go which I really started to play this year.

Happiness product (games x rating x length):
1. Go (153/32)
2. Die Macher (54/40)
3. Puerto Rico (36/100)
4. Sticheln (34/new)
5. Age of Steam (26/new)
6. Coloretto (22/new)
7. Gang of Four (21/new)
Tichu (21/new)
9. Amun-Re (19/new)
10. Crokinole (18/new)

Go wins the pot here. There are the best long games (Die Macher, Age of Steam) and then the shorter games I played a lot.

Matthew Gray's month metric:
1. Go (8/4)
2. Sticheln (6/new)
3. Battle Line (5/6)
Lost Cities (5/6)
Puerto Rico (5/8)
6. Amun-Re (4/new)
Coloretto (4/new)
Mamma Mia! (4/new)
Ra (4/new)

Go hit the table most. Sticheln gets a good showing here, and it's true: I played it in a steady fashion, especially during the Spring/Summer.

2 players:
1. Go (101/17)
2. Lost Cities (28/34)
3. Battle Line (18/14)
4. Lord of the Rings: Confrontation (13/2)
5. Crokinole (11/new)

Lost Cities and Battle Line are steady favourites of mine, that's for sure. I'm still a bit curious how I end up playing Lost Cities so much, even though I like Battle Line more. Tom Tube might make this list next year, I've had it for a short time but it's a great game. I also enjoyed Flowerpower and Ta Yü even though they don't show up on the list. About half of the games I've played (268/557 to be precise) are two-player games, but that's pretty much because of Go.

3 players:
1. Sticheln (12/new)
2. Coloretto (8/new)
3. Sunda to Sahul (7/new)
4. Mamma Mia! (6/new)
Puerto Rico (6/17)

As some of you might know, Sticheln is my favourite three-player game. Well, Flaschenteufel is challenging that. 114 three-player games in total. There are plenty of three-player opportunities for me, I've noticed.

4 players:
1. Coloretto (15/new)
2. Crokinole (9/new)
3. Sunda to Sahul (7/new)
4. Land Unter (4/new)
Puerto Rico (4/9)

Interesting and surprising list. Shorter games, mostly. Looks like my four-player games were well distributed and that's true - there are plenty of good four-player games. 109 four-player games.

5 players:
1. King Lui (9/new)
2. Mamma Mia! (4/new)
PitchCar (4/new)
4. Taj Mahal (3/new)
5. Too many games with 2 games.

Well spread here as well. This was the only mention Taj Mahal got, which is a pity. It was one of the more interesting new games this year as well. 57 five-player games this year.

As an extra bonus to round it up, here are fives and tens for the University board game club I run:

10's:
Isis & Osiris (25)
Mississippi Queen (15)
Crokinole (14)
Sunda to Sahul (14)
Web of Power (14)
PitchCar (11)

5's:
Princes of Florence (9)
TransAmerica (9)
Lost Cities (6)
Cartagena (5)
Clans (5)
Falling (5)

Total of 82 different games and 258 games played.