November 2004 Archives

Ok, so now we have Michael as the GM and he has already set up the game. Anybody wishing to join the game should first register with the DPJudge. Next step is to send e-mail to dpjudge@diplom.org, with the following content:

JOIN vertigo [password] redhill
SIGNOFF

And that's it.

Man, I'm in the zone now. I just wrote another review, this time of Dorra's card game Land Unter.

Land Unter is a clever little card game. The basic mechanism is a simultaneous trick-taking game, where the two highest cards collect two water level cards. Water level cards are a mixed blessing, as each turn the player with the highest water level card loses a point. The player who played the highest card gets to pick first, so usually winning the first pick is good, not winning anything is so-so and coming second is a disaster. That's fairly tricky, when the cards are played simultaneously.

While that is all interesting and fun, too, it's not all there is. In an attempt to eliminate luck of the draw, game employs a simple, but brilliant mechanism: after each hand players pass their cards to the next player. Several rounds are played so everybody gets to try all hands. That's clever and it certainly makes for interesting end-of-game discussion where everyone can compare who did best with different hands.

But that's not all, either. As I said, drowning a bit means a loss of points. Players have different amounts of points in the start of each hand, depending on the cards they have. Bad cards give lots of points, so with a bad hand, you start with more points. With the lousy cards you've given, it's probable you'll lose most of them, but if you can play well with bad cards, you'll score a lot. Playing well with bad cards is critical to victory. A good hand can't score as many points as a bad hand, besides everyone is going to score well with a good hand anyway. While the value of cards can be debated, this balancing measure seems to work quite well. And hey - if there's an imbalance, everybody gets to suffer and benefit in equal amounts.

Land Unter is a clever game. Then again, while I recommend trying it for the novel idea, it hasn't become a staple. It should work well as a filler game for gamers and as a refreshingly different card game for non-gamers interested in card games. The art is cute. While I don't think Land Unter is really a must-buy, considering the price (at least in German mailorder) and the quality makes it an offer hard to refuse.

I wrote a review of Amun-Re. It was kind of a request, really - I implemented a search box on my game review site and someone had searched for it.

Amun-Re kind of puzzles me. I find it's mechanics interesting and while the Egyptian theme is a bit boring, it is woven well with the mechanics. I have a hard time figuring out another theme for this game. That's untypical for a German game and very rare for a Knizia game.

What's odd is that I don't like the game a lot. Sure, I'll play it if someone suggests it but I probably wouldn't suggest it myself. I ended up selling the game, despite my early interest towards it.

A detailed description of mechanics isn't necessary. Shannon Applecline's RPGnet review explains the game thoroughly.

The game is about buying land and building pyramids in the ancient Egypt. During three rounds, players buy one area each turn. These auctions are the main point of interest and excitement of the game. The auction mechanism is neat, offering some scope for tactical bidding.

Knizia has managed to build a wonderful dramatic arc in the game. After three rounds players own all of Egypt and have built pyramids and farmed the land. Scoring occurs and after that, the old kingdom is history. Time leaps forward to the new kingdom. All land ownership is forgotten and farmers are removed. Only pyramids remain, reminding of the glorious past. The latter half of the game plays like the first, but with all the valuable pyramids on the play, the land auctions get a new twist.

That's very neat and one of the best features in the game. I also like how Knizia has handled the important issue of Nile flooding. Players can adopt a farming strategy if they wish but as is the case with Egypt, success of farming is related to the flooding of the Nile. How much the Nile floods depends on the moods of the god Amun-Re, whose mood, in the other hand, is related to the generosity of the sacrificial offerings he receives.

Thus, players find themselves offering money to make Amun-Re satisfied - or not. If one has no farming endeavours, why bother with sacrificing? Fortunately there's the option of stealing from the pot. That doesn't aggravate Amun-Re, for some reason, but there's no divine gifts coming to those players either. Still, it can be a good option.

One thing that's good about Amun-Re is the replayability it offers. The different provinces of Egypt are very different and the order they appear in can shape the game a lot. If the provinces are farming-heavy, sacrifices to Amun-Re will be high and that affects the value of certain other provinces and so on.

With all the good things I've said about the game, it's easy to see why I don't understand why I find it so lukewarm. Something just doesn't click the right way. I still would recommend it to anyone looking for a heavier gamer's game with a stronger theme. For non-gamers, it's probably too heavy and complicated so skip it, unless you love the theme and are willing to spend time and effort learning the game.

Rick Thornquist posted, finally, that in-depth review of Doom: The Boardgame he's been promising. Sounds nice, but Rick Thornquist skips one interesting question: how's the game when compared to Space Hulk? Because that's what it sounds like. I presume Rick doesn't know Space Hulk, so we'll have to wait until someone with experience in both games can make some comparisons.

Anyway, I'm not going to buy it, because it'll be pretty darn expensive (well, actually, just 55 euros - I'm slightly surprised) and it's really not that interesting, but since I do get a game a month from Lautapelit.fi and there aren't too many hot must-get games around, I just might grab a copy. After all, selling Doom will be easy if I'm not interested in it.

Tommy posted a nice Helcon report on his website. It's in Finnish, but English readers can at least take a look at pictures.

Few picks: Yours truly studying the rules to Mall World, a very cryptic Sleuth note sheet, Robert, the girls and a game (two out of three are pretty, guess which two) and finally, the mastermind behind the event, Tommy.

I've had a good writing mood going on. Latest result is a review of Biberbande.

Biberbande is another Amigo five euro card game. Their selection is amazing, the production quality of the games is top-notch and often the price is dirt cheap. In this case, the price is about right, because Biberbande offers considerably less meat than some of their other games.

Despite that, it's a fun little game. Players have four cards, which are kept face down in front of them. In the beginning of the game, players can take a look at two of them, but after that, there's no peeking. The goal is to get as low total score as possible.

On each turn, player can turn over the topmost card in the deck or use the card left by the previous player. If the card looks nice, they can swap it with a card in their set. Of course, that could be an even better card, if it's one of the unknown cards - that's why taking the card left by the previous player might be a smart move. Cards range from zero to nine, with some special cards. Best of those is the swap, which allows you to swap cards with another player. Now if you only could remember where she had that zero...

The round ends when someone decides so. That player announces his intent to quit the round and everyone else gets a turn. After that it's revealing time and scores are tallied. Game is played over several rounds (I think the rules call for six rounds, but that's too much in my opinion - three or four is often enough) and the lowest total wins.

Biberbande is so light it's almost pointless. However, despite it being so silly, it can be surprisingly entertaining. It's fast to play, because there are really no decisions to make. It's almost a complete luckfest. Biberbande is probably best as a family game, played with small children. The fact that players don't have to keep their cards in hand makes the game even easier to play for small children. Therefore Biberbande is a keeper, in case I ever have children (I hope so).

Would I recommend Biberbande to an adult gamer with no kids? If you're ordering games from Germany, five euros isn't much. I personally wouldn't pay the 12 euros these Amigo games cost in Finland (in cheapest places). But with five euros you get a fun little filler game that definitely doesn't tax the old grey matter too much. If you like silly little games, Biberbande is a good choice. For many it'll be too silly.

Another review up: DaVinci Code.

I know it's a bit early to review the game, because I only have played the game few times and always with three players, but knowing that my opportunities to play pretty much anything this year are quite slim, I thought I'd like to get the review out for Christmas season. You see, DaVinci Code is a perfect Christmas gift game.

The game's about deduction. It's a far cry from the heavy deduction games like Black Vienna - even Mastermind is probably more taxing on the brain. For one thing, I'm afraid 50/50 guesses come up in critical points of DaVinci Code more often than they should in serious deduction games.

However, the game has lots of things speaking for itself. First of all, it's fast. The game should definitely be over in twenty minutes. Second, it's easy to learn. Even if the players haven't even read the rulebook, they should get a game in going in just minutes. The rules are short and simple. There's little room for playing wrong. Third, the game is good fun. Despite the luck involved, the players can get good moments of enlightment when they figure out bits of their opponents codes.

Now that I've told you why I like the game, perhaps I should describe how the game works. Game is played with black and white tiles, with numbers running from zero to eleven on them. Each player takes four tiles at random and makes a code out of them. The tiles stand up, so players can set up their code so nobody else sees it. The rules of making the code are simple: numbers should ascend from left to right and if there are two tiles with the same number, black goes left.

To start a turn, player draws one of the leftover tiles, thus getting a tidbit of information. Then she must make a guess, pointing at an opponent's tile and saying what she thinks the number is. If she's correct, the number is revealed and she may continue and make another guess. If she doesn't continue, she inserts the newly-drawn tile in her code, thus making her code harder to crack.

If the guess is wrong, though, it is she who has to reveal a tile. The newly-drawn tile is placed in the right place in her code, but face up so everyone can see it. This goes on, until only one player has some hidden code left. Yes, there's player elimination, but that doesn't occur until the end of the game, so nobody has to sit out for a long time.

I quite like the game. As I said, I've only played it with three. I have a hunch that it might be the sweet spot, but that remains to be seen. Other reports seem to indicate that the game works well with two or four players. The complaints are usually about the luck (especially the critical 50/50 guesses) and the advanced game, involving dashes that can be placed anywhere in the code. They make the game slightly harder, which is good, but can give an unfair advantage to a player who gets one.

DaVinci Code is a good game and recommended, if you're looking for something light but not stupid. This should work well with gamers and non-gamers. It also makes a good gift, because learning the rules is so easy that no teaching is needed.

Iain wants to play Diplomacy. After a long time with no touch to Diplomacy, I'm actually interested to give it a go, too. However, finding a game isn't that simple and it looks like we'll have to arrange one. So, I thought the readers of this blog should include at least some people who'd like to play Diplomacy. No earlier experience is needed, knowing the rules and willing to play the game to the bitter end in a timely manner is enough. Remember, though, joining means committing to play for few months at least - replacing players in the middle of a game is very annoying.

DPJudge is probably the best place to set it up at. We need a GM, but that should be easy. Being a GM means doing the initial setup (no skills necessary) and adjusting the deadlines in case players need a vacation (very simple). Oh, and yeah, we need about five players, too. If you're interested to join (GM or player), either comment here or drop me e-mail. Fellow bloggers are especially welcome to participate.

A new review is up at my Finnish game site: Geschenkt.

I've reached ten plays fairly quickly with this one, mostly because nobody is satisfied with just one play. It's always hey, I got it, let's play again - that alone is a sign of a good game. And that's it, pretty much: Geschenkt is a good game.

Well, you might want to know why. First of all: I just adore simple but clever card games. If that's not your thing, forget Geschenkt. Geschenkt (given, as in gift you'd rather not keep for yourself) is a very simple game, but offers quite enough meat. The decks consists of cards, numbered from 3 to 35. Each card is worth negative points according to its value. Players start with 11 chips, which are each worth one positive point. However, the chips have another, more important meaning.

There's always one card available. Of course, as cards are worth negative points, taking cards is a bad move. The chips come to rescue here: toss a chip on the card and the turn moves on to next player. Of course, whoever ends up taking the card (either by free will or lack of chips) gets the chips, too. At some point the deal is sweet enough for someone to grab the card, because eleven chips just isn't going to keep you from taking cards throughout the whole game.

This all wouldn't be enough to make the game really interesting. A twist is needed. If a player manages to collect a set of cards with consecutive numbers, they get a bonus: only the lowest card of the set is counted in the end of the game. Now, if you have, say, 30 and 31 comes up. Will you take it? Why would you? It's basically insignificant for you (few positive points, if there's some chips on it), but hurts someone else a lot (close to 30 negative points).

New players are prone to just grab the card right away. It's nice to see them realize that, frankly, you're just doing everyone else a favour by taking a nasty card for free. The others should pay for the relief, really and therefore one should let the card go around the table for few times to collect chips. Eventually you want it, to get the chips and to be able to repeat the deal with the next card in the series. There lies a risk, though, as the amount of chips everyone has is secret. Someone might not have enough chips, which will ruin your plan.

There's also a temptation to take cards with gaps in the series, say 11 and 13. After all, the 12 will come up and you'll be able to connect your separate series and save lots of points. Well, it's not that simple - to keep up the tension, nine random cards are removed from the deck. Perhaps that missing link in your series is one of the removed cards?

Geschenkt is a charming game. There's lots of tension and a nice dose of luck. The rules are very simple and quickly taught. There are different strategies to try (well, at least two: avoiding cards and collecting lots of cards in hopes of getting lots of chips) and the whole deal lasts just ten minutes or so. No, double that: you'll be playing it again immediately.

With it's low price, Geschenkt is another fun filler to add to one's collection. There are lots of these kind of ephemeral filler games (I've played Coloretto just twice this year while it was all the craze last year), but you never know when you'll find a gem like 6 nimmt which you'll still be playing ten years from now. Then again, missing a game like this is not a big deal - if it's spectacularly good, it'll float around.

Erkka and Robert were first to arrive, so we kicked the session off with two games of Da Vinci Code. It's a good game and really a good choice for the club. It's easy to learn (even learning by reading the rules is quick and easily done), plays fast and despite being kind of lucky, offers some thinking, too. It's kind of cerebral quickie, really.

We played two games and unfortunately I didn't win either one. Erkka and Robert both won once and I think they liked the game. However, at least Robert felt the dashes introduced too much luck. While they make cracking the code a little bit harder, they might give too much benefit for the lucky player who draws them. Perhaps they shouldn't be used.

As I didn't have Geschenkt yet, I had to improvise. I took cards from 6 Nimmt and some glass beads and hey, off we went. We played a three-player game and then Ilari joined us, eager to try the game. Everybody liked it. I just wish I'd get a proper copy, I'd prefer that to a "pirated" copy. Playing with hidden tokens, by the way, improved the game. I think that's the official rule, too - we had that wrong in HelCon. It doesn't matter much, I like the game both ways, but hiding the tokens adds to the delightful uncertainty of the game.

Next up was the only new game this time: the infamous Intrige. Others hadn't heard of it - pity them - so everybody was willing to play it. I told them it is called one of the most evil games in existence, but only after we had played a while. We had a full set of five players, which I think is necessary to play the game.

Oh boy it was fun! I wasn't sure if it's my kind of game, but it was. I just love the trash-talking involved. In general it's not good to offer too much advice to other players (especially if the advice is also helping the adviser), because that turns every game to Diplomacy and that just isn't fun, unless everyone likes it. Most games are much better if they're not made into negoating games, really. That's why it's so fun to have a game, where all that advising and talking rubbish is actually encouraged.

I managed to annoy Ari right away. He gave me a 10k job, when I promised him the same treatment he would give to me. Well, I did give him the 1k job, but that's because he was planning to stab me next turn, giving his 10k job to Erkka. Turn two, and I already have a mortal enemy. It didn't go much better for the rest of the game, really. That can be seen in the results: I had 80k, others had 110k, 118k and 124k while Ilari got 171k - his last two income phases brought in 42k each. There was some last-turn kingmaking going on, we had a healthy beat-the-leader attitude throughout the game (and very unhealthy beat-Mikko attitude in the early game).

Even though I lost by a large margin, I had lots of fun. Intrige is a very good game, but it takes the right crowd. If people are prone to bear grudges or take nasty game moves personally, Intrige is the wrong game to play. At least these guys kept all the hatred inside the game, which is the right way to play the game. Actually, I'd find it quite immature, if someone would get mad at me because I betrayed them while playing Intrige. Intrige might be nasty, but such things happen in other games, too, every now and then.

The worst thing about Intrige is, come to think of it, the way how you can get screwed for really no reason at all. For a whim. When you are stabbed in Diplomacy, it stings, but if it's well done, it's easy to take; you can even admire a skillful stab. Then again, pointless stabbing just makes the other guy look bad. In Intrige, the reasoning behind a betrayal is less substantial. There are no armies on the map conquering supply centers - it's just someone's conception of who's leading the game or what's his or her best choice. Good positions in someone else's palace, future job applicants, history of betrayals, all the fuzzy things that matter. It's much harder to say if a betrayal was a good move or not. It's immediately a lot more personal.

And if you can't handle that, you won't enjoy Intrige. It's that simple. Even if you can handle it, it might not be fun. Ari didn't like the game, that was obvious. I'm not sure if he would've played the game, had he known what was coming. Robert also said it was the last time he would play the game, but he found the experience interesting. Don't know about Erkka, but Ilari enjoyed the game and will play again, I believe. And I'm certainly looking forward to playing the game again and I'm quite happy to have the game in my collection.

After that we went Mafia and played Don. After my bad experiences in Helcon, I wanted to try it again. Now we had four players and correct rules and it was much better. We actually played two games in a row, which is fairly rare (but not this time, for we had several good, short games). I still won't rate the game higher than seven, but that's a steady improvement. Actually, if I ran into it with a good price, I might buy it. The nice coins alone are a good excuse to buy it.

Then we played some more Geschenkt with different people and belive me I did well! In the first game I scored -10, which in my experience is a very good score. But it was the next game that really blew the top off: I had just one card (26) to score and 40 tokens! 14 points, positive! Amazing. I did have luck with the cards - in the end I had a straight run from 26 to 32. I made good fortune while taking those cards! Usually such a long run is cut short, but with such large numbers, nobody was willing to take the hit for common good. Just one card off my series would've dropped me to negative points. Still, it was a wonderful game.

I took my El Grande, which I hadn't played in ages. Robert had similar revival feelings and we got a game going on. We had just four players, but hey, it's a good game with four as well. With three, it's charm begins to diminish. Now, it was great fun, especially since it was such a long time from the last game. Robert got a lead in the first scoring round and pretty much kept it throughout the game. Not enough beat-the-leader, I suppose. The struggle for power was fun, even though I came in third. At least I had a healthy margin over Erkka... Small comfort.

To close the evening we played a game of St. Petersburg. Olli hadn't played it before, so he was eager to try it. I think he played really well for a newbie, he wasn't even last. I was. But it was close! Three of us were within five points (70, 73, 75) while Robert got amazing 103 points. Collecting lots of aristocrats, as usual, made the difference.

Summa summarum, it was a very good afternoon. Lots of good new games (very fresh, if not completely new) and a good oldie. What's more to ask?

I finally got a copy of Da Vinci Code aka Coda. For Finnish readers, Suomalainen kirjakauppa has them. This year all we have is a German box with a sticker on it but with Finnish and Swedish rules. Early next year there should be a completely Finnish edition, which is available in the usual stores. If you want it now, Suomalainen kirjakauppa is the only option as far as I know. They have discounted it already: the boxes had two price tags, 19.90 and 12.90 euros.

I'm looking forward to introducing the game in the board game club Sunday. It should make a good filler. We've had some trouble with too long games in the beginning of the meetings, from now on I'll try to focus on short filler games until enough people have arrived.

I got a copy of Four Dragons today. As the Geek link betrays, it is a remake of Dia de los Muertos, one of my favourite card games. The new edition loses the strong theme (more about that in Four Dragons, an earlier entry of mine), but the new theme isn't really that bad. Who wouldn't like dragons, especially the Chinese ones?

What's best, the new edition has very beautiful art (though the old edition has it's charm and I'm quite happy to own that one as well) and what's even more important, the new edition is readily available. That's an improvement! Four Dragons can be recommended to anyone looking for a cerebral card game. The requirement of exactly four players is still a bit of a hindrance, though.

This is good news for gamers without credit cards: Adam Spielt accepts euro money transfers in addition to credit cards. Money transfer is fast, easy and cheap method of moving money from one place to another.

However, for Finnish gamers looking mostly for single games, Lautapelit.fi and Peliarkku are probably better choices than ordering from abroad. Supporting local dealers every now and then is a good idea.

If you haven't read Helcon III - Saturday yet, that's the place to start from. Sunday began with a meeting, when the Finnish Diplomacy Association had it's last meeting. It's final now: the association will now be known as Finnish Boardgame Society or Suomen lautapeliseura. We'll forget Diplomacy and start spreading the gospel of better board games. The goals for 2005 include getting 100 members, scoring some money from the government, organising few good events and getting a good web site running. We'll try to have a chance to influence the game of the year awards and whatnot. I'm back at being the secretary. This should be good news to Finnish board gamers. I'll let you know when the website is up.

After the meeting it was time to get Mall World going. I was anxious to try it out. Tommy explained the rules to us and boy, is the game confusing or what! It's about building shops in a mall, while collecting orders to cash in on those shops. There are lots of auctions and what else.

There are some very clever ideas. Players can auction either one, two or three cards a turn. If you choose one card, you play it and pay to common fund. With two cards, there's an auction (blind bidding). Highest bidder chooses a card and pays to common fund, active player gets the other card for free. With three cards, highest bidder pays to active player, second highest to the common fund and active player gets the last card for free. Nice.

But. There's a similar problem as in Fifth Avenue. Orders are needed for scoring. Collecting them makes the game end sooner. You can either place shop tiles or an order. Only n+1 order can be played before a scoring happens in a n-player game. This all results in trouble, I think. First of all - n+1 orders means just one order for each player except the lucky bastard who gets two.

There's an unpleasant forced atmosphere. I think the rounds are too short and offer too few actions. The rush to pick up and place orders is annoying. If someone places an order, you must too, otherwise you're screwed. We did play the game wrong (not rules, but tactics) - I had too many useless order cards in my hand. Drawing order cards should be rare, I think, but that's difficult to see when you're playing the game for the first time.

My Geek rating is six right now, but I'm willing to try the game again. Now that I know the system better, I think I'll enjoy the game more. However, I'm not surprised by the few sixes the game has received at the Geek. While Mall World certainly has some promise to it, it just wasn't fun to play. I was frustrated and annoyed by the system. I'd rather play something fun, even if it's less clever.

After that, there was precious little time before I had to leave, so only small games were possible. I challenged Tommy to a match of Yinsh, which I won. I also wanted to try my new copy of StreetSoccer, so we played that, too. That didn't go so smoothly - I resigned, when Tommy had a 6-0 lead. That's what you get when you play with dice - occasionally the luck can be seriously against you.

But yeah, I did get StreetSoccer. It was a trade I made with Phil. I also got Intrige (the new Amigo edition). In return I traded Canyon and some money. A good deal, I think, because Canyon is dead boring. I haven't tried Intrige yet, but at least it shouldn't be boring.

I also sold Tikal, Carolus Magnus, Alhambra and Carcassonne: Hunters & Gatherers. All are good games, but I really don't have a need to own them. I've made progress, you see. Originally I just acquired and the thought of selling a game would've been a disgrace. Then I evolved to selling bad games I didn't like and here I am, selling good games I just don't care to own. I think that's a healthy attitude and a real necessity, if I want to keep my game collection in check.

David Price has a good Helcon entry in his blog. He has some pictures, too. I took some pictures, but probably won't publish them, as they aren't really that impressive. The effort of publishing them is too high compared to the benefits, really. Tommy promised to post a Helcon report with pictures, but that'll be in Finnish, I think. Anyway, I'll link to it when I know about it.

Helcon III began early in the morning, when we packed up everything in Tommy's car and headed to the location. We quickly set everything up, unpacked games and arranged the tables and whatnot. First visitors arrived early and started playing games soon and soon more came.

First game I played was a four-player Crokinole match. There are plenty of people who just love Crokinole and for whom Helcon is pretty much the only chance to play the game. Tommy's board saw lots of action during the weekend. I got my fix early. I teamed up with another gamer from Tampere, whom I had actually never met. We lost, unfortunately.

Then it was time for the Die Macher game we had scheduled in advance. I had to explain the game twice, that took some time. But so did the game, too, clocking in on four hours and 15 minutes. No matter how much I like the game, I can't help it: it's too bloody long. With about one chance to play the game each year I'm kind of wondering why I rate it a 10. And it all depends on players, too... I'd love to play the game with people who already know the rules, but that's too much to ask. I don't know - it's too heavy, really. I'm soft, sure, but four hours is just too much. I felt kind of sad, being locked down in the Die Macher game with all the other games I could be playing. And still - I can't help but appreciate the game. Perhaps it's one of those games you appreciate but never actually play.

Anyway, Markus, who has proved his superiority before, won our game. The point spread was wide, from Markus's 412 to my 254. No celebrations at the PDS headquarters this year!

After a decent pizza, it was time for other games. While Tommy didn't buy Oltremare for some odd reason, he brought one for Stefu. It was a must-try, after all the good buzz about it. It's an interesting game, that's for sure, but it's not the second coming of Jesus Christ as some had it.

It's all about trading stuff on the Mediterranean - how sweetly original. The game plays a bit like Bohnanza, but not quite. All play is focused on cards, which have lots of information crammed on them. First of all, there's goods. Players try to collect sets of similar goods. Cards are played in a stack and similar cards lumped together in the stack score like in Bohnanza: more cards you have, more money you get. The topmost card of the stack is visible and dictates the turns. First there is maritime power, lack of which can force players to discard cards in pirate stacks (negative points). Other issue is cargo capacity, ie. the number of cards players must play on each turn. Of course, you try to get a card with as much maritime power and cargo capacity as possible on top.

Cards have two out of four possible symbols. There's money, cards, pirates and ship moves. Money brings money (points), cards give you cards, pirates add cards to your pirate stack and ship moves allow you to move your ship around the map, collecting bonus abilities. It's a tricky thing, trying to manipulate everything to work in your advantage while collecting as large sets as possible. Add in trading between players and you get quite a game.

The print run of 700 copies was quickly sold out in Essen, but I'm sure there's a proper edition coming out sooner or later. It's such a good game, after all. I liked it, but I'm not in a rush to buy it myself. I already have Bohnanza and while Oltremare certainly adds to that, it's just not my type of game. I can, however, understand the enthusiasm of others.

After Oltremare I wanted to try Niagara, another Essen piece of interest. I had seen the pictures, but the game is even better in real life. It's gorgeous! Unfortunately we played it wrong: first game was very much wrong and second one still had major rules issues. However, the game is fun. It's a chaotic little rush, where players try to paddle around in quickly flowing river, trying to collect gems. Mistakes can cause one's canoes to go flying down the falls.

It's not a serious game, but great fun and spectacular looks make it all work out fine. The way the river works, with plastic discs you push down the river towards the falls, it's just so ... tactile. It's a lovely game and one I'd really like to try with correct rules.

Tommy had bought Don and wanted to try it. The game is a clever little auction game. Iain likes it, and so does Bruno Faidutti, who lists it in his very best games. However, it fell a bit flat.

The game is about auctioning cards with numbers from zero to nine on them. When you win a card, you can no longer make bids ending in that digit. If such bid wins the auction, you collect the money. Otherwise the money is divided between the players. Players try to collect sets of same-coloured cards. The game sounds great, but in practise it just felt a bit stupid. We had a rule wrong - we always auctioned one card instead of a cycle of one card, two cards, three cards. We also had too many players: Bruno Faidutti says the game doesn't really work with more than four. We had five.

So, while I didn't like the game much, I'm going to try it again. That'll be easy, because Tommy sold the game already and it was bought by Olli from my local club. I just hope he's coming to next meeting!

After that, I was kind of without a game and picked up Yinsh, interested to take a look at the only Gipf game I've never tried. I was studying the rules when I was approached by Magnus, Stefu's older brother whose game it was. He was more than happy to teach me the rules. Yinsh is a bit like advanced indirect five-in-row. Players jump around with rings, placing pieces where the rings lay and turning over all pieces the rings jump over. If player gets five in a row, the pieces are removed and so is one ring. The player who collects three rings first wins. The better you're doing, the more difficult the game gets, of course.

I did fairly well, but Magnus's superior skills were quite enough to beat me. However, it wasn't that obvious. I think Yinsh is a pretty good introduction to Gipf games, as it was fairly easy to play. Difficult to master, sure, but getting in the game was easier than in Zèrtz, for example.

And as a matter of fact, I paid back the favour by teaching Zèrtz to Magnus. I kicked his butt, even though I was rusty after a long time without any exercise. Maybe I've played more Zèrtz than Magnus has has played Yinsh, but I think Zèrtz is more difficult game. It's odder, more unlike other games. Getting the right mindset is more difficult in Zèrtz.

After Gipf games it was time to spread the contagion and convert more fans for Geschenkt. We played with five and the game's great fun that way, too. Everybody liked it, too - I think the game's going to be a wild success.

I avoided a game of Bang! and teached Einfach Genial to Robert, David and Eveliina. It was quite a different game compared to the one I'd played yesterday. We had loads of points! Robert won the game with 16 points in his weakest colour (18 points is the maximum amount of points). That was something else. Definitely not enough blocking and defensive play, this time! That's what you get with all newbies, I suppose. Funny though, I hadn't really noticed Tommy and Laura play defensive moves the day before, but maybe it's just so subtle?

Anyway, we were then looking for something quick and I noticed a copy of Europa Tour lying around. Robert owns the game and was able to teach the rules to us and off we went, criss-crossing around Europe. I got a good start and managed to complete a route from Portugal to Turkey, visiting Robert's home country of Croatia. It was a fun little game, but nothing too spectacular. I wouldn't mind playing it, but probably wouldn't actively suggest it. Most people seem to like the two-player game, we had four players, so perhaps it gets better with fewer players. Still, it's good family fare in my books.

To wrap it up, I played two more games of Geschenkt with the same guys. This time I explained the rules wrong (or they heard wrong - that's my stand in the issue), they thought it takes three cards to get the discounts. They enjoyed the game still, it's that robust!

Oh, one more game: throughout the day, we had a No-game going on. It's a Sid Sackson design from his Gamut of Games. Each player gets a token (I used large plastic paperclips). If someone says "no", the first person to notice gets all their clips. It was a fun game. Some people liked it, some people didn't, but those who didn't could bail out easily. One guy took it very seriously and managed to keep his clips for a long time. Then he found out the game we were giving as a reward (Evergreen) and gave up. In the end Stefu won the game, ambushing his brother just minutes before the game ended. Nice move!

And that's it, for Saturday and really most of the Helcon. Stay tuned for one more entry with Sunday games and some general stuff. Update: proceed to Helcon III - Sunday.

Helcon is history and it's time to write another lengthy epic on the games played. The event was a wild success, with over 50 visitors during the two days. The place we had was practically full during the Saturday afternoon. There's definitely new event next year, but we might be forced to look for a new location as the current one can only hold 75 people (well, more would fit, but fire restrictions limit first).

As usual, I headed south Friday, to spend the evening with Tommy, Laura and Stefu before the event began. Tommy had brought a nice pile of new and old games from Essen and his overflowing game collection was even larger than before. I first thought I'd take only few games with me, but I ended up hauling a large bunch of games - mostly for sale, because this was a wonderful opportunity to sell some useless games.

But, games! Our first game was Michael Rieneck's Spiel des Jahres -candidate Around the World in 80 Days. Many who played it in Helcon dismissed it as light and stupid, but Tommy is a big fan. I liked the game, too. Sure, it is light, but it also has interesting twists. I wouldn't buy it myself, right now, but would recommend it to someone looking for a nice family game with a bit more to it than in the usual mainstream games.

The goal of the game is to go round the world, spending as few days while at it as possible. The winner is not the first player to reach London, but the one who spends least days. The mechanics are simple, but there are some neat ideas. The best one is probably the actions. Each turn, players choose a card to draw from the table. Each card is connected to an useful action, so players must make a decision: do I need a good card or a good action? Luck has a role here - if you have a good card with good action, the decision is straightforward.

It's a light game and clearly in the family game genre, but I think it's a good game for such. I had a good start in our game, but at some point things just didn't go my way. I really screwed it up crossing the Pacific Ocean. Laura was first to make ít to London in 75 days, but Tommy beat her with 73 days. I was, unfortunately, last one in London and thus an automatic loser. I wouldn't have won anyway... Our game took an hour, and would've been faster if we had known the rules better.

Tommy had a copy of Eiszeit (aka Mammoth Hunters) he wanted to try, so why not! I'm always in for an ALEA game, even one of the not-so-well-liked ones. Eiszeit turned out to be a decent game, actually. It's an area control game, where players run around with their men, trying to place them in areas with mammoths. Once the phase is over, some of the pieces starve (there's a random element involved, majorities rule here) and then the survivors are scored. Each piece is worth one point plus one point for each mammoth in the area. Glaciers cover an area of the board making things more intimate and the game continues.

The idea is pretty fun and there's a very clever mechanic in play. Players actions are driven by two kinds of cards. Light cards are positive things, stuff you want to do: place more pieces, remove opponents' pieces, move mammoths, things like that. You pay the light cards with stones. To get stones, players must play dark cards, which give actions to other players. Each dark card played also moves the game along, as there's only a limited supply of stones. That's tremendously clever and works really well. That was a really good, fun part of the game.

However, where the game fails is the chaos of it all. Eiszeit is a chaotic game, where beat-the-leader is very much the flavour of the month. Two players can ally against third, using both light and dark actions against the leader. Nasty. That makes the game both close and exciting, but also a bit pointless. It was no wonder our game ended with a very close score: 43-42-41. I had the lead through the whole game and won, even though I got some heavy flak on me most of the time.

The game is also a bit too long. There should be four phases, but we only played three (shorter game, as suggested by rules). That took an hour and was certainly enough. The game is so repetitive that playing over an hour would be too much. Despite it's shortcomings, I think Eiszeit is a fun game and I could recommend it to anyone who likes a bit of chaos and beat-the-leader mentality.

Next on the list was Geschenkt, one of the games I had expected most. Oh my, it was fun! I even won the first game I played (that would be my last Geschenkt victory for the whole weekend). The idea of the game is very simple: either pick up the card on the table or add a chip. The player who takes the card gets the chips. Cards have numbers ranging 3-35 and count as negative, while chips are each one point on the good side. And here's the twist: if a player has a series of cards with consecutive numbers, only the lowest card is counted. Brutally simple, but very addictive. Of course, to add to the excitement, nine random cards are removed from the deck.

Geschenkt is a must-buy for the fans of quick little card games. It's a very enjoyable game and the game I'm most looking forward to adding to my collection. If I can't get it before the next board game club meeting, I'll have to improvise - I want to play this game so badly.

After that it was a step up in the complexity scale. Einfach Genial is Knizia's latest offering. It didn't get the Spiel des Jahres (with a theme, perhaps it would have), but the Austrians gave their award to it. Sure, it's an abstract game, but very accessible one. The rules are very simple and the twist is already familiar from Tigris & Euphrates: players score in several colours and the lowest score counts. Other than that, it's just tile-placing over and over again. It's simple, but exciting. Tommy likes the game a lot and is contemplating a 10 rating. While I'm not that excited, I do agree it's a fine game. Simply genius! Ours was a close game, which Laura took home with just 11 points.

One more game before hitting sauna: Da Vinci Code. I already asked Tommy to bring me a copy from Essen after reading the Games Journal review. However, then I got the news there's going to be a Finnish edition, so I canceled my order. Now I got to try before I buy, which is always nice.

I'm buying. Da Vinci Code (which has, of course, nothing to do with the book) is a clever little deduction game. Each player has a four-number code. Players try to guess their opponents' codes. Correct guess opens their code, wrong guess opens yours. Last man standing wins. It's a luck-heavy game and nowhere as challenging as for example Black Vienna, but sometimes lightness is a good thing.

Da Vinci Code makes for a good filler and while it's light, it's far from stupid. I think it's a very pleasant little brain exercise. What's best, I won our game! Laura was first one out and Tommy followed soon.

Last game of the evening was Flowerpower. Tommy beat me, once again - I don't think I've ever won him in this game. It's a fun little game nonetheless.

Continue to Helcon III - Saturday.

Downloading Mike Doyle's PRege, La Ciudad might take a while, but it's well worth it. Mike Doyle was frustrated because he was unable to see the whole picture of a Puerto Rico game. He went on and created some new art for the game. Instead of personal player boards, there's a large common board, which features all the different buildings players can build. Players just place their tokens on the map to show which buildings they have. It's an interesting idea and the artwork is stunning. I wish I had such a board. The files are available for do-it-yourself people, but I'm afraid it's just too much trouble and I wouldn't be able to make it pretty - handicraft isn't one of my strong areas.

I'm now running Movable Type 3.121 here. Major changes include new, smarter URLs for entries (old files remain, so links are not entirely broken) and new commenting system. I now support TypeKey, which is a global registration service. If you register with TypeKey, you can use that id to comment in several blogs. In Gameblog, comments from non-TypeKey users are welcome, but moderated.

This is a minor annoyance, but I'm not doing it just for fun - the comment spam problem is intolerable and this is a full stop for all that nonsense. Signing up for TypeKey shouldn't be too complicated and if you're an active reader of blogs, chances are you can use the id somewhere else as well. Of course, signing up isn't mandatory - you can always post anonymously, it'll just take a while for your comment to appear.

Movable Type 3 isn't the most popular option, thanks to the new pricing scheme, but I think it's well worth the $70 I had to shell for it. There just aren't any good alternatives to Movable Type. WordPress is popular, but doesn't work for me because it only supports one blog per each installment. I don't want to have half a dozen installments, I want one entry point to all my blogs and for all my bloggers. Nothing else does it, as far as I know, except Movable Type.

Today I'm heading to Helsinki and Helcon. I thought I wouldn't take a huge load of games with me, but here I go, hauling one large bag and few smaller ones. If things go well, I'll be able to sell most of those games and I don't have to take them back. There are only few games Tommy and Stefu wanted me to bring to play, most notably Media Mogul and Victory & Honor.

I'm looking forward to trying some Essen goodies. Mall World is number one, even though I couldn't care less about the theme. I wish the game was about land development in DDR, as it used to be according to Mik Svellov's review. Anyway, it should be interesting.

I like simple card games and Geschenkt is about as simple as they get. Sounds very promising and - echoing the sentiments of dozens of gamers - why didn't I come up with that one?

Hopefully Phil will bring Niagara - I don't know if I'm keen to play it, but I certainly want to see it. It looks amazing in the pictures.

Tommy's Roads & Boats will be an object of much drooling and admiration, but I don't think we're going to actually play it this time. Some other time...

Those are my main expectations - nobody has Oltremare as far as I know, that would be interesting. Well, no matter what we play, I believe Helcon will be great fun as it was last time.

I thought I'd entertain you with some statistics. This has nothing to do with games, but my blog, so feel free to skip this one. Anyway, I took everything I had written to Gameblog and wrote a program to count it. According to my counts, I've written about 135 000 words before this entry. That's a good novel, really.

My 533 entries average to 259 words each, with a median of 175. 75% of the entries have under 300 or so words. Most of the entries are, thus, quite small, with some very large ones pushing up the average.

In 2002 the entries had an average of 225 words, in 2003 it was 282 words and this year it's been 249 words. Nothing really emerges here, except a very small growing trend when one adds up ten-day averages. Most of my recent entries are on the low side, though, as I've been writing relatively few session reports and more short news items and other minor things (minor relating to the word count, anyway).

Highest peak is Lahti games weekend, Saturday and Sunday with almost 2000 words. Rest of the gaming weekend is another big one, almost 1600 words. There are few others in the 1000-1500 range. There's Helcon, gaming at Tommy's, Lahti weekends... that kind of entries.

I don't know if this is interesting or anything, but I can certainly imagine more boring ways to kill time while waiting for the telephone to ring and the patrons to bother me. Meddling with numbers is entertaining (and this, I suppose, is quite revealing in relation to my taste in games).

A new issue of The Games Journal is out. Spot the Component 1.0 is a tough game piece id puzzle. I think I have eight to ten figured out - of 32! Getting more right would take some investigation.

Iain got me playing Dvonn - I've been meaning to, but I have lacked motivation. Now I started and hey, it's a good game. Right now it ranks second in the Project GIPF games, right after Zèrtz. I'm still to finish a game, so my opinion is still slightly vague.

Meanwhile, I've figured out I don't really like Amazons and Twixt isn't that exciting either. In some way Amazons is a great example of a boring abstract game. Then again, maybe I just haven't figured it out yet.

And one more Little Golem news tidbit: I didn't make it. I needed three wins in four games and got two. Bummer, but next time, next time...

Mark Jackson is back with his Game Central Station. It's nice to have it back, with a new, improved URL and all. Some of the stuff is still missing, the Departures page has no links to any blogs, but hey, it's just fine.

Some will find Color of the Wind, Alan Moon's White Wind newsletters intriguing. I'm perhaps slightly too new to the hobby to really appreciate them, but there are some interesting articles included anyway.