I’ve been playing some Through the Ages recently on Boardgaming Online. Turns out it’s one of those games I like less the more I play. The way the civilizations are built and everything is abstracted I still consider brilliant, but I’m getting more and more frustrated in the military aspects of the game.

It’s the same thing that bugs me in many games, like In the Year of the Dragon. I build up something nice (or at least try to), then some moron with a bulldozer comes and crushes everything.

In the latest online game I even tried to play war myself, but what happens? 74-point army comes marching on a War over Culture. By discarding every unit I have, I managed to come up with 55 points myself, but I lost 19 culture, have no armies left and everybody will just trample over me. I could resign now, just as well.

So, nice game, but not actually much fun to play… I’m probably selling my copy of the game next time we’re having a board game auction, because I just don’t see this one making it on the table. If I want to play, there’s Boardgaming Online, which is a superb implementation anyway (I’d actually like to give it a go, face to face with a laptop per player, might not be bad especially for two-player games).

I’ve also been playing pbem 18xx. I’m in two games of 1856, which I’ve been avoiding a bit before (it’s fairly popular game in Finland, actually), but actually it seems like a pretty nice game. A large map, loans, Canadian Government Railroad… interesting stuff, even if I have no idea of how to play.

I’ve also started a game of 18EU with my regular opponents Kimmo and Kalle. The initial auction will take a while… We’ve already played 18AL, 1889 and 1830. The 1830 was a good game, though Kimmo lost it pretty badly. It was a tight call between me and Kalle, but Kalle got it in the end.

I’m also in a six-player game of 1830, that’s an interesting experience.