Last weekend in Jyväskylä was unusually active with board games. I had couple of games with me and managed to play several games of Puzzle Strike and some Stone Age, too.

Stone Age was a bit of a hit, my mother in particular enjoyed it (like I guessed she would). And why not, it’s a pretty good game. My opinion of the game improved a lot during those four games (all of which I won, obviously).

I raised my rating to 8 and now consider Stone Age one of the best worker placement games. It just works. The unpredictability of dice is well handled and there’s a lot to do to make luck play a smaller role. Bernd Brunnhofer is clearly an experienced game developer and managed to create a very solid game.

(Considering St. Petersburg, the previous Brunnhofer game, was also a huge hit, one of the biggest ever, in Jyväskylä and Stone Age was a success, the latest Brunnhofer title Pantheon seems like a must have.)

Puzzle Strike, on the other hand… We played eight games, mostly two-player with couple of three-player games thrown in. I’m not sure.

The chips are sort of annoying to handle. Too big for shuffling, too small for the text. I’d prefer cards, to be honest.

The game play… Well, I’m not sure. Seems a bit bland, but it can partly be because I just don’t know how to play well. Puzzle Strike requires certain level of play from the players to shine. Buying actions is even worse than in Dominion, buying lots of Crashes and Combines is a must — but also somewhat boring.

So, so far Dominion is the better game, but I’m not done with Puzzle Strike yet.

Here’s couple more photos from the weekend.