This time we had a much smaller attendance. I arrived at 11.30 am and met Erkka, who had also just arrived. Fortunately I had planned to play two-player games! We started with Lord of the Rings: The Confrontation. We played two games, and both of us won one game. We both won with the good side, which is strange. Last time I played, dark side won both games. It was a good thing, though, I was feeling the game was leaning a bit on the dark side.

I was reminded how good the game was, but Erkka wasn’t excited and thought it was a bit dry. Next we played a game of Balloon Cup, which Erkka liked more. I think it’s a very good two-player game, definitely.

While we played Balloon Cup, Juho arrived. It was time to play Time Control. The idea is neat: real-time time travel action! Unfortunately the game is practically unplayable. We played one round, which took us over half an hour. After that nobody wanted to continue the game — it was that bad. I’ll probably write a review of it today. I’ve rated it as 2 in the Geek…

Time to play something more entertaining: Sticheln. Which probably wasn’t hard to guess… In the end it was a competition between Juho and Erkka for the second place. Juho got it with two point lead. I had almost 30 points more than both of them.

Then Erkka left. Juho seemed to interested in The Confrontation, so we play it. Seven games of it, actually. After dark side won the first four games, we gave the good side the handicap cards. Even after that I managed to win one game as dark player. To balance it out a bit, we both managed to win one game with the good side, using the handicap cards.

I think the dark side is easier to win. The good side takes more tactical eye, as their resources are weaker. One thing that is interesting about The Confrontation is how the tactics evolve after repeated playings. After both of us had played Pippin several times in the front line to scout the mountains, I made a Pippin trap by playing the Warg in Moria. Oops, there goes Pippin.

It’s a clever game, which just gets better the more you play it. There’s a nice element of bluffing and logical thinking. And it’s fast to play! My games with Erkka took about 15 minutes each, with Juho I played seven games in about 75 minutes.