January 2009 Archives

The most-anticipated release of the year is now out! Baby number two turned out to be a girl (ok, so we knew it in advance, but didn't tell anybody!) and is doing fine. Johanna is also doing fine, much better than after the first time. This one was much quicker, so quick I almost missed it... But fortunately just almost.

I'll have to revisit this entry with the proper tag once we decide to go public with the name, that's another thing I know and you don't...

I had a great time at today's board game club (yeah, the baby's still waiting for a nice day to be born -- perhaps next week?). I started with quick five-player game of Formissimo, which is a simple speed test pattern recognition puzzle.

Cards have images with different attributes. 30 cards are laid on the table and every player gets one. Then you just have to find a card with a picture that has at most one attribute different from the card you have. Continue finding new cards until you can't, then say stop. Everybody who hasn't made a mistake scores one point per card.

It's simple and really fast. A round can be over in seconds and a whole game is done in five minutes or so. With five players, it was perhaps too fast. The task is fairly simple, though it's also fairly easy to make mistakes. This won't replace Flix Mix or Set, but I'll play this again -- but preferably with just three or four players.

My Milan-Spiele order arrived last Friday after just two months of waiting. The delivery itself was very swift, as the parcel was posted on Monday. We just had to wait for Duck Dealer... Obviously worth the wait. That game seems interesting. I also got Formissimo and Steel Driver in that order, so it was time to get Steel Driver on the table again.

Last time I played Steel Driver was in Helcon. Again we had five players. The game is quite easy to teach, which is nice. We also played fast, finishing the game in just 60 minutes.

It was a good game, with players using interesting tactics. One of the players figured out that since he doesn't know much about the end game works except that it's huge, he tries to make as much money (points) during the game as possible. He pretty much always paid all his money to buy the share he wanted and then developed the railroads a lot.

In the end he was second to last, so it didn't quite work out, but I think there's some potential in that strategy. It's just that his shares weren't good enough in the end. I did well and bought a total of eight shares (the practical maximum in five-player games is ten). That included about four really good shares, which was enough to secure my victory.

I like Steel Driver. It's a refreshing change from Wabash & Co that you use a fixed income of cubes to bid and the shares produce different currency, that's what makes Steel Driver interesting and worth playing.

According to my stats, the last time I played Torres was in August 2002. Six and half years ago, that is. The game has lingered in my mind since and I often thought about buying it. I think somebody thought about publishing it in Finnish, which made me hopeful, but that didn't happen. Finally I got the game in a math trade, I traded Chinatown for it. I even got the old version, I prefer the Cimatoribus art of that version.

We had four players in our game, with fairly little experience. So, of course we had all the action cards available for everybody. That way nobody has to remember what the decks contain. To me, that seems like the best way to play the game anyway, though I could try the version where everybody has a personal deck and the cards are drawn -- now it seemed like people had few action points too much at times.

It was a fun game. I was slightly annoyed by the lack of interesting building options in the end -- why do anything less valuable when I could simply expand my main castle with two tower blocks for eight points? Everybody thought I would win, and I did have a great castle 11 blocks wide -- but I was on the fifth floor and Riku and Toni were on the fourth floor, so that was just 11 points for me. In the other hand, those guys got 51 and 42 points from the king's castle, while I got just 18 points -- a loss of 33 and 24 points for me.

That was enough, I didn't win but I did place second. In what I understand is typical for Torres, the final scores were 238, 236, 235 and 193 -- so the difference between 1st and 3rd is just over 1% of the total score. Can't feel too bad about a third place like that.

Hopefully I'll get to play Torres again before 2015...

Sampo Sikiö did the really cool redesigns of Preußische Ostbahn and Wabash Cannonball, but it doesn't stop there.

Go take a look at some real talent! His Flickr photostream has more pictures of his work and also general photography, while his homebrew games portfolio displays more of his work with board games.

The Winsome game remakes are his best work so far in my opinion, but there's more. He's been working on a board game version of the old computer classic M.U.L.E., and that game, L.L.A.M.A. looks awesome, too. His version of Medici is also really neat.

I don't know about you, but if I were looking for board game graphic design talent for a project of mine, I'd hire Sampo right away.

I visited today's board game club session quickly. Petri and Hannu were free and easy to rope into playing Preußische Ostbahn. I had a bonus, too, as a friend of mine (Sampo Sikiö) had recently done a new, much prettier board for the game.

It's wicked cool, too, and makes playing the game a lot more fun. While I don't mind the Winsome Game look, I still enjoy games that look nice and having a really good game look really good makes sense, right? Attached is a small detail picture of the Sampo's board, that shows the style of the redraw. You can see more at Sampo's Flickr page.

Anyway, we delved into it and I must say I played a darn good game. I felt like I was in control. After a slowish start, I got into a good lead position and was able to align my interests with Petri, who was last at the time. So, plenty of useful actions for me, as we had plenty of common shares. I gave Petri's Bayer Rails a good money boost which we then used to good effect, gaining some pretty nice dividends.

Hannu was left alone and that hurt him a lot. He did recover and had the game lasted a little bit longer, he would've likely reached second place. Perhaps. Lots of what-if there. Still, I had strong interests to quit the game early as I was clearly the money leader but less clearly the income leader.

Unfortunately the keys to ending the game were in Hannu's hands. I should've bidded more for that second Preußische Ostbahn share, which was the crucial slip of paper -- I gave up around $35 or so, but it would've been worth closer to $50, I believe.

Well, it didn't matter. Hannu didn't prolong the game much, but instead drove the Ostbahn to Berlin, ending the game. A bit of frustration, there, but as it secured my victory, I don't mind.

Preußische Ostbahn is a really good game. I really, really like it.

After a quick round of Set I headed home, where my favourite boy was already anxiously waiting for me. My 2.5-year-old son has a serious crush on me, he wants to do everything with daddy these days. It sure warms my heart to be the target of so much affection.

Year 2009 started with Blue Moon, which I had apparently skipped both in 2008 and 2007 -- my previous session is from December 2006. That is so long ago I didn't even have the cover picture here in my blog archives...

I played with Olli, who has just recently moved to Kaukajärvi. So, instead of making my way to the city center (I live in the Tampere suburbs), we met at the Kaukajärvi library. I had some trouble deciding which games to take with me, but at the last moment I remembered Blue Moon and that was all we needed for our two-hour session.

We had time for six rounds, which was enough to see every deck in play. I dominated the first three rounds, then Olli remembered how the game is played and kicked my butt for the next three rounds. A nice, balanced result. It was interesting to see the Buka invasion in action -- I haven't used them a lot -- and they are, really, an interesting bunch. They do stand out from the other decks with their special abilities. Slightly complicated, but worth it, I'd say...

Olli was interested in further quick short-notice two-player sessions, which suits me fine, as getting to a proper game meeting might be tricky at times with the two kids, while a quick meeting at the library is much easier. Going to the university meets takes almost an hour in bus travels, while I can walk to the library and back in less than five minutes.

So, how was the year? Pretty wild, if you ask me.

Good new games (2007-2008 games)

Dominion - Well, I played 28 games of this, and most of them outside BrettSpielWelt. That's a pretty nice number, considering how late this game arrived. Everybody likes it, or at least doesn't mind playing a game. Dominion is also really easy to teach and once everybody knows it, moves fast. That is, it's almost perfect for board game club environment.

I do believe it's possible to get really bored of it, but so far it's definitely one of the real highlights of the year and since it's so easy to teach, I expect it'll keep value. Besides, I quite like playing it, I like quick turns and games that move along swiftly and there are definitely interesting decisions in the game. Based on some of the comments, I think avoiding excessive play on BSW might be a key to enjoying Dominion in the future as well.

Wabash Cannonball - Game of the year, sorts of. This was a major hit in Spring when I got my copy. Our group had the most vocal fans of the game, it's interesting to see how the game will be received now the Chicago Express edition is coming and more people will be exposed to it. I still like this one a lot, and was happy to find out the five-player game works just about as well as the four-player game. Four is best, but I'm not sure whether three or five players is the second best.

Chicago Express is neat, but I'm not buying a copy. I'm hoping Queen will translate it to Finnish and I can get it that way... Seriously though, while the new edition is pretty, I happen to like the Winsome edition, especially the fact that in the same space Chicago Express takes, I can fit four or five Winsome games.

Preußische Ostbahn - The cousin of Wabash Cannonball. This is the German family game of the series, says John Bohrer, and I can tell you playing Ostbahn is more fun than playing Wabash. The games are similar, but different - how deep - in several, interesting ways. There are more companies, the share system is fairly simple, there's no stock dilution... And then there's the turn order.

As CortexBomb said in BoardGameGeek, Ostbahn is the turn order mechanism. Players get their cubes in a cup: the leader gets one, the second-best gets two, the next one gets three and so on. N cubes are drawn, where N is the number of players. The cubes tell who gets to play. It can get ugly, but then again, the goal of the game is to win without taking any actions...

This is a pretty rough game, and I need to play more to figure out how to work the stock market to my advantage the best. I've played three times and right now Ostbahn is the hottest game for me, the one I'd really like to play more. This is an excellent game.

I also enjoyed the other game in the Winsome Essen set, Gulf, Mobile & Ohio. I've only played it once, though, so can't say much about it yet. It's definitely the strangest game I've played in a while. I have to say I like what Winsome Games has done recently.

Of earlier Winsome games, I also bought Pampas Railroads from the reprint. I only played the game once, but I liked it and wouldn't mind playing more. It's a slightly longer game, so doesn't hit the table as easy.

Small comments: Steel Driver seems like a nice twist on the railroad theme, Steam over Holland is an exceptionally well-produced 18xx title, Le Havre has potential for excellence, but also for way too long sessions.

Good older games I haven't played before

Die Dolmengötter - I skipped this one in Essen 2005 because it looked ugly and not very interesting. I shouldn't have, because it's one of the real highlights of 2008 for me. I bought my copy from Tommy, since JC Lawrence said nice things about in Geek and I wasn't disappointed. I even upped my rating to ten after some hesitation - the game is really, really good, but only with four players.

With four the game certainly nears perfection. It's 20 minutes of absolute bliss. Interesting tactical decisions, a hint of overall strategy and some luck or player interaction chaos - make sure you max out your highest dolmens and you're set for glory.

If I ever want an arts & crafts project, I might consider doing a nice-looking re-theming of Die Dolmengötter. The theme is completly bogus and the board is somewhat ugly - I think it could be nicer. I have no idea of a suitable theme, though.

Preference - A traditional card game. There are actually several similar games with the same name, usually identified by the country of origin. We play the Russian variation, which I believe is slightly more complicated than the more usual Austrian game. It's no Bridge, but a nice three-player game that is just challenging enough while being easy to teach - very easy, if the student has ever played a trick-taking game with bidding.

Preference also plays fast enough. It's a charming game and though it only works with three players, it's become a very likely choice if there are three players including me and Hannu and someone who doesn't hate traditional card games. This one's definitely worth trying if you're looking for a trick-taking game for three and want something more casual than Skat.

Tolstoy was a fan of the game. Oh, and when we play Preference, it looks just like in this painting by Viktor Vasnetsov. The archive copy of The PrefPage is probably the best source for rules in English, though it's slightly vague. Wikipedia has more.

Le Truc - This is another traditional card game that has gained local popularity. Ok, so Hannu likes it. Sid Sackson saw the greatness in this game and listed it in his A Gamut of Games. It is truly a great game. Very simple on the surface: three-card trick-taking with suits having no significance at all. However, the scoring system is where the game shines.

The possibility to raise the stakes mid-hand makes Le Truc work slightly like poker. Many elements are there: bluffing, slow-playing, going all-in. Le Truc is simple, but makes for a great two-player filler, since after all, everybody is carrying a 32-card pack with them all the time anyhow (what? You don't? I know I do). The game is best played in rubbers, at least the best two out of three, preferably even more, since there's plenty of luck involved and getting to know your opponent makes for a better game.

I should probably rate this one a ten, since I expect it has a good chance to stay in my standard repertoire for the rest of my life.

1825 - I went and bought the whole shebang - well, almost, I'm missing some expansions - in the Spring, the basic sets from BoardGameGeek marketplace and the rest from Leisure Games and Northumbria Games. I'm still missing the Phase 4 expansion, so if anybody has a spare copy, name your price.

I've only played three times - two two-player games of Unit 3, one three-player game of Unit 2 - which is a shame, but these longer games are hard to play. 1825 is just too long to fit comfortably in our weekly game nights. However, I can easily say this is my favourite 18xx game.

Qwirkle - Let's put Qwirkle here, even though the Finnish edition came out this year. Qwirkle is a really solid game: I rate it as eight, but I listed it on my Christmas Good Games list as the general recommendation (I list games I've reviewed and have various categories: for adults, for gamers, for families, whatever, and one general for everybody recommendation). This is a high honour, but I think Qwirkle deserves it.

Why? Qwirkle is simple, has enough luck and skill involved, looks nice, feels nice... It's non-offensive and perhaps a tad bland. I don't think many people are going to list it as their number one favourite, but I don't think many people hate it, either. It's an easy-going, fun game, with enough new and enough familiar. A solid game, with just one flaw - that's the score-keeping, which is somewhat clumsy.

Glory to Rome - I finally ordered this from the States, thanks to cheap dollar and Brian Bankler's constant mentions of it. It didn't cost much, buying just this one game. It was well worth it, as the game is wicked fun. It's like Race for the Galaxy, but wilder... I like the ways the cards interact and how the combos can get outrageous. It's slightly tough game to teach and some people just don't like it - so, not an excellent game, but a definite keeper, I like it myself a lot.

Games I've kept on enjoying

Mahjong - I got back to mahjong this year, enough to do a mahjong web site in Finnish. That was - and is - a fun project, and something that was missing from the web. The site isn't tremendously popular (less than thousand visits a month these days), but at least the few visitors are really active with the Google ads.

I've played few games, experimenting with new rules instead of the good-old Japanese classical rules. I've tried the Chinese official rules, modern Japanese rules and the World Series of Mahjong rules. It's the WSoM rules I like the most, they are simple yet give the player enough options. I will play with just about any rules, though, as long as only the winner of the hand is paid. That's where I draw the line.

I also spent some quality time with Four Winds Mahjong, as I had to buy a Windows laptop to do my new job properly. They haven't released a new version, but the old one is still highly functional and an excellent tool for getting used to different mahjong rule sets.

Age of Steam - Good old Age of Steam. I managed to reach my goal of playing five games, but unfortunately didn't get any more in. For some reason Age of Steam is slightly difficult to get on the table. Well, I had fun with the few sessions I played, and got to try few new maps. Of course, I bought more maps than I played, so I'm still in trouble.

The Secret Blueprints of Steam maps intrigue me a lot. I tried them once, but the company wasn't the best possible - it just isn't a newbie-friendly way to play. I'd really like to try the blueprints with experienced players.

I also got to try New England Railways, an ancestor of Age of Steam. There are interesting differences and similarities, and while my opponents weren't excessively interested in this game, I found it rather charming.

Tarock - We've continued playing tarock - and it is definitely tarock we play, not tarocco or tarot, as we mostly play the Slovenian game with four and Strohmann with two. With three we play Preference, though Cego might be worth trying. We've only played Cego once, and that was with five if I remember correctly, and I get the feeling Cego is a three-player game.

The not-so-good, the disappointing, the plain bad

Eketorp - This game looks good, but it combines all sorts of elements I don't like. Double-guessing is the worst offender, and the fact that this game took 90 minutes to play. Eketorp looks great, but it looks like the mechanics don't really mesh with the majority of BoardGameGeeks: the game has just two 10s and nine 9s.

West Riding - I got something of a Winsome Games mania and purchased a set of Winsome Games when I found them at Northumbria Games. Of the three, West Riding was the disappointment. Dutch InterCity, an ancestor of West Riding in a way, is an odd game I've played only once, but it's a short game so I'd like to try it again at some point. West Riding, however, was kind of ok, but definitely not worth the three-hour play time. Were it in the same one hour slot as Wabash, it'd be another story. The third game of the bunch was New England Railways, which I already mentioned.

In the Year of the Dragon - This is a popular game, probably one of the more popular games amongst my friends I just can't stand. I've played this once on board and once on SpielByWeb and I don't want to play again. Something in this game rubs me the wrong way. It's kind of like Amun-Re - I can see why some people like it and I kind of think it's a pretty good game, but just not for me.

Animalia, Kingsburg, Airships, Thief of Baghdad - Meh.

Quick look on the good games of the previous report

Agricola - Five games this year. Requires will to get this on the table, and I'm slightly wary of playing the game with newbies. I would like to play more.

Caylus Magna Carta - Played once. Not a huge hit. Should probably sell this one. Magna Carta felt better than Caylus, but in practise isn't. In the end Magna Carta isn't short enough - were it more like San Juan, it would be better.

Combat Commander: Europe - Gone after few games. Too long, too fiddly, high resale value.

1960: Making of the President - Played once, sold. Not my cup of tea.

Phoenicia - Thinking about selling. Didn't play once in 2008, but I like it - then again, 2008 was the year of selling good games I just don't play (off went Memoir '44, Finstere Flure, Tigris & Euphrates, Combat Commander and several others).

Race for the Galaxy - I still like it a lot and I played it, too, but it wasn't quite the hit I expected. Hard to teach, too slow for my tastes with newbies, not a huge hit with the club.

Through the Ages - Bought the new edition, played it once, definitely not going anywhere (but I wished it got on the table).

Ubongo Extrem - Nice, but... one play of Extrem is all Ubongo I played this year. I like the games, but don't play them. Perhaps I should sell them, or sell the basic version and keep the Extrem, as I like it more.

Totals

Fives and dimes

Games played ten times or more in 2008:

• Dominion (28)
• Le Truc (14)
• Die Dolmengötter (11)
• Wabash Cannonball (10)
• Black Vienna (10)

These games were played five to nine times in 2008:

• Tier auf Tier (8)
• Race for the Galaxy (8)
• Qwirkle (7)
• Mahjong (7)
• Preference (6)
• Strohmann-Tarock (6)
• Set (6)
• Battle Line (6)
• Flix Mix (5)
• Bondtolva (5)
• Agricola (5)
• Age of Steam (5)

Pretty good lists, a lot more games than last year. I like these lists, I'm always happy when I get repeat plays for good games. Missing Age of Steam from these lists would've been a major disappointment.

Totals come to 284 games of 114 different titles.

Month metric

Top games on this list were Die Dolmengötter (six months) and Le Truc, Qwirkle and Preference (five months).

Year metric

1. Battle Line (7/8)
2. Attika (6/6)
3. Gang of Four (6/6)
4. Age of Steam (6/6)
5. Modern Art (6/7)
6. Lord of the Rings: The Confrontation (6/7) *
7. San Juan (5/5)
8. Ingenious (5/5)
9. Lost Cities (6/8) *

I didn't play games marked with an asterisk this year.

Huber Happiness metric

Dominion, Mahjong, Age of Steam, Wabash Cannonball and 1825 brought the most Huber Happiness this year.