September 2006 Archives

Review of Terra Nova in Finnish.

Terra Nova is a fairly abstract game of fence-building. Players try to move their men on the board and fence off as much land for themselves as possible. If the land features just one landscape, it's even better. The game reminds me a lot of Amazonas, but there are lots of refinements in this one.

Landscapes and actions

The hexagonal board is divided into eight different landscapes. There's a small thematic element, which goes awry as soon as you realise your men are perfectly capable of walking on water. So, consider this one abstract.

The game begins with a setup phase, when men are placed on the border. Your basic turn is then to move and place a borderstone or two. There's three actions each turn; any combination of moving and placing stones is fine, as long as you start with a move.

In the beginning there are lots of options and choosing what to do can be hard; in the end, the board gets a lot more constricted and the game gets really interesting - the obligatory move makes some nasty forced move situations.

Scoring

An area is closed when nothing can move inside it and there are at most three landscapes inside. With three, it's one point per hex. With just two landscapes, it's two points per hex and if the area contains only one landscape, it's three points per hex. That way smaller can be better in some situations.

Players can also share points. If one player has a majority inside the area, she takes all the points. In case of a tie, the points are shared. Stealing areas and cooperation come into play with more than two players.

Chaos and tactics in varying decrees

Terra Nova is chaotic and heavily tactical game. No long term planning is possible, except on some very vague level. Reacting to opponents' moves is what you'll be doing, particularly with more than two players. With two, the game is less chaotic and more of a brain-burner.

Terra Nova is a decent little game. However, I didn't enjoy it much. With two, it's just another abstract and not particularly sharp one. With four, it's much too chaotic for my tastes. I suppose the sweet spot is three - I haven't tried and honestly, I don't mind to. While the game is probably better that way, it's still pretty far from interesting.

However, if you don't mind chaos and heavy emphasis on tactical play, Terra Nova can be an interesting little diversion. I wouldn't expect it to appear on anybody's top lists (as I'm writing this, there's just one rating of 9 at the Geek and no 10's, which is quite as expected), but if acquired cheap, Terra Nova should offer enough value for money if you like the idea.

Board game club was a big hit yesterday, with almost a record crowd of over 20 gamers. I made a quick visit and had time for just a few games.

I've wanted to play Terra Nova to get it off my system. Now I tried the game with four players and found out my expectations were correct: with more than two players, the game is very chaotic and not much fun. The point-sharing mechanism is definitely more interesting than with two players; probably the sweet spot is three players. Well, four is probably nice too, if you like tactical chaos and two is good, if you prefer strategic abstracts... In any case, Terra Nova is definitely not for me, thus I sold it right away at the first chance.

I also tried Viva Topo! with four players, and enjoyed that one immensely. Sure, it's roll and move, but thanks to the brutality of the cat (particularly with four players), the game is great fun. The die can give or take the victory, but it's not all luck, there are different strategical paths to take. It's definitely not a main course, but a very tasty 10 minute snack.

Evening was wrapped up with a round of Flix Mix, which I won despite a bad brain jam halfway through it. I haven't won every round I've played, but every game so far has been mine! Love the game, I really do.

Johanna wanted to play something, so I offered Einfach Genial. I know she doesn't like abstracts, but instead prefers more imaginative, theme-rich games, but I thought this could work... and it did! It's not one of her favourites, but she enjoyed it.

Of course, Einfach Genial is far from the world of serious high-skill abstracts, and instead offers more dynamic play experience where luck has enough room to make it interesting even if the players are of different experience level and skill (there simply aren't that many skill levels in Einfach Genial).

I'm more and more convinced Einfach Genial is a classic game and one I'll be playing for years and years. It's just so simple and clean, a superbly elegant design. You can see it in the Geek: many people love the game and very few hate it; you either love the game or don't care much about it, but there's very little to hate about it.

Here's an interesting comment from the Geek, by the way: I simply don't like this genre, the "nearly chess" type tactical games. This one aditionally suffers from a high luck factor. Isn't the luck factor the very thing that makes Einfach Genial something else than a Chess-like abstract? Einfach Genial must be one of the easiest and most accessible abstract games around.

Finnish Game of the Year awards for 2006 are out now, and what a huge disappointment they are! Best children's game is Build-a-Burger (I would've given the award to Das kleine Gespenst, but I don't know anything about Build-a-Burger). Best family game is Quackle, which seems to be a clone of Snorta!, or at least the idea is similar. Best game for adults is Pentago, which is ridiculous! An old abstract game with a single new idea and nice bits, and the jury goes drooling over it.

What about Samurai? Elasund? Pingwin? Pirate's Cove? Bloody amazing.

Here's the information in Finnish.

Like I need more temptations: Bézier Games has published two new Age of Steam maps: London and Sun. Both are designed by JC Lawrence, one of the more interesting people in the web board game scene. The maps seem fabulous, both offering tough, challenging games.

Looks like there might an Essen courier available to avoid the heavy shipping costs for the set, so I could actually think about getting these...

Another review up: Hacienda.

Hacienda is a solo work from Wolfgang Kramer, published by Hans im Glück. That's quite a combo: one of the esteemed professional designers and one of the most appreciated publishers known for quality games. This definitely sets up the expectations.

While Hacienda isn't a particularly great game, it's good. What Kramer has done is to take bits and pieces here and there - there's little in Hacienda that feels fresh, new or unique. Yet the whole is more than the sum of its parts.

Endless streches of land

Players build ranches and herds of cattle on the pampa of Southern America. The land scores points and some money, the animals make money and some points. Basically you're building as long stretches of land as possible, while connecting the animal herds to markets to make money and points.

Getting land and cattle takes cards. Cards are drafted Alan Moon -style from closed decks or open selection. Drafting cards takes money, so there's a bit of resource balancing going on. There's also limited time. You've got just three action points each turn, and would prefer to spend as few as possible on resupplying instead of actually doing something.

Challenge and tension

I like the challenges the game offers. There's a feel of urgency and tension, which is always good. Yet at the same time Hacienda still feels a bit too familiar. I suppose I would've loved this game few years (and hundred or two games) earlier. Now, it's a good game amongst many other good games, and I feel little need to actually buy it.

The biggest flaws seem to be the openness of the boards (there are two different board layouts, which is nice way to spice up the game) and the power of long land chains. I have a feeling that both are remedied by more aggressive playing. Still, I would recommend Hacienda for four or more; with three, the board is quite wide.

Overview

If you're looking for something quite solid and fun to play for four or five players, Hacienda is a good choice. Particularly for those who are not jaded by the countless flow of new good games... Hacienda isn't a bad choice for less experienced gamers, either. The theme is fun and the rules are pretty clear. Me, I'm happy to play this at SpielByWeb every now and then.

I tried some children's games with Johanna. These are always pretty hard to evaluate when you don't have children to try them with. Both games are not very good for adult use, so they'll end up in storage, waiting for Nooa to grow up.

Das kleine Gespenst is based on a classic children's book by Otfried Preussler. I haven't read it, but I really, really liked Krabat* so I suppose it might be good. Anyway, it's a fairly basic memory game with some dexterity game elements (well, it may start as a guessing game and then evolve to a memory game, depending on the setup) with fantastic components. It's really, really very cool, one of the prettiest games in my collection. So, I think this should be good, if the ghost theme manages to draw the kid in (I loved ghosts as a kid).

Geisterwäldchen is the sequal to Geistertreppe. It's roll and move - children are trying to escape the ghost tower. There's some cute twists, like the giant dwarf that escorts the kids. Early in the game the dwarf is a threat, as players who cross the river with the dwarf will return to the start. After the river, dwarf carries the players to safety. Pawns attach magnetically to dwarf, so after you move to dwarf you must continue with the dwarf - and all the other pawns that move with the dwarf. Ghosts are used to take off unnecessary parasites from the dwarf. Cute game, but nothing for adults as such. Should be fun with kids, though.

* Krabat is also known as The Satanic Mill - but who would let their kids read a book with a title like that? Anyway, the black magic and devil-worship theme was the thing that drew me in. And you shouldn't be scared, as the story has a moral, too. It's been translated to 31 languages and it has won many awards, also in the States.

I wouldn't post this, but I know I have a geocacher or two in my audience, who might be interested... First to Find! is a trick-taking game about geocaching. Game homepage has some artwork.

The cards look nice, but actually it's a regular deck of cards with new art. The game, it seems, is a trick-taking game. I wouldn't expect the game to actually model the sport in satisfying way, but that's hard to say without looking at the rules (which aren't public, which is obvious since the game could probably be played with a regular deck of cards).

Finnish Players' Picks 2006 voting is now open and remains so until end of September. If you are Finnish or live in Finland, feel free to list five to seven of your favourite games from the last year (1.9.2005 - 31.8.2006). Remember: the voting isn't about your all-time favourites or the best games released in the last year, but the best games you've played during that period.

The voting form is the way to go. If you have any problems (for example you can't read enough Finnish to understand the form), contact me.