We had scheduled a game of Greed on Wednesday’s game night, but that fell through. Some other time, then. I did get my copy of Greed back, I had borrowed it right after I got it, so I was finally able to take a proper look at it. It sure looks great. The cover is one of the best ever, classy and fits the theme well. The theme is excellent, at the same time serious and funny.
We did play Peloponnes, with the full compliment of six players. It worked well, which is a good thing, as six-player games this good are rare, but otherwise I wasn’t too pleased with the game.
The problem is the same as with In the Year of the Dragon — I don’t like the way the game keeps knocking down the things I built. That’s not fun, even though it was somewhat entertaining how everybody around the table kept complaining about it.
Still, I prefer building games where I get to keep the stuff I build. I don’t mind games that are difficult or even hostile towards players, but it shouldn’t work this way. Peloponnes is short enough so I can certainly play it again, maybe with greater success and more fun, but I’m glad I didn’t buy it like I planned at some point.
Hannu had found me a copy of Schildkrötenrennen. The Finnish edition is out-of-print and I’ve been kicking myself for not buying it when it was available. Hannu was fortunately able to find me a cheap copy.
This Knizia-designed tortoise race is a simple race game, where players play cards to move the tortoises back and forth. When the tortoises move into a space with other tortoises, they form piles and when you move a tortoise, all tortoises piled on top of it move as well.
Tortoises are secret, so there’s a bit of bluffing, especially as you only have a five-card hand and must advance other tortoises as well — you just can’t keep on moving your tortoise forward and the others backwards.
It’s simple, quick and great fun. I played it twice with Johanna, which was great fun and then with Nooa. Nooa needs an easier game, so we played with open cards and open tortoises, and the game worked that way as well (though that’s just a decent childrens’ game, not an overall great game like the actual game).
3 responses to “Peloponnes and Schildkrötenrennen”
I have been playing Schildkrötenrennen with my four-year-old girl. He likes it a lot — but not as much as the memory games she’s so good at.
Nooa isn’t very good in memory games yet — I’m waiting for that to happen, as kids are supposed to be memory masters. Of course, that requires concentration, which isn’t Nooa’s strongest suit. Well, he has already learnt some skills at losing gracefully, so I guess it’s just a matter of time.
Losing the stuff I’ve worked so hard to build doesn’t sound like much fun to me either. It’s why I parted with In the Year of the Dragon without shedding a tear.