Author: Mikko

  • Thursday session: Glory to Rome, Schnapsen

    I got a chance to play two more games of Glory to Rome today. It’s a great game, especially as I won both games… Well, that’s definitely not hard against newbies, and Mari, the only other player with experience, didn’t repeat her excellent performance from the last time. The buildings are fun. In the first…

  • Playing-card review 4: Piacentine and Napoletane by Modiano and Dal Negro

    This time I’m taking a look at some Italian regional packs. I happen to have two copies of the Piacentine pack by different makers, which offers some comparison possibilities. Italy has 16 different regional packs, which are divided to four different styles: northern Latin suits, southern Latin suits, French suits and German suits. Both Piacentine…

  • Thursday session: Modern Art, Glory to Rome

    Yesterday’s games started with a three-player Modern Art with Petri and Hannu. This was our first game with the new Finnish edition. It’s gorgeous, and I’m glad to report it works well. Pretty much the only problem is the small size of the screens: they tip over and can’t cover a huge pile of money.…

  • Chris Farrell is back!

    One of my favourite bloggers, Chris Farrell, is back! His new blog is called Illuminating Games. His insights on Glory to Rome are interesting, especially considering I just bought the game (I’m hoping to play it next Thursday, we’ll see).

  • More playing-cards

    Modiano was kind enough to send me some sample packs, so more playing-card reviews are coming up!

  • Playing-card review 3: Doppelkopf packs by ASS and Piatnik

    This time I’m taking a look at some Doppelkopf packs. These packs have 48 cards, but they are actually made of two 24-card packs. Thus, the packs have A, K, Q, J, 10, 9 in each suit twice. Doppelkopf is a very good game, developed from Schafkopf. In Doppelkopf, or Doko as it’s also known,…

  • W. Eric Martin’s 40 thoughts

    W. Eric Martin’s Forty Thoughts on Gamers and Gaming is something worth reading.

  • Cards from Piatnik

    I have good news for those of you who have enjoyed my playing-card reviews: I just placed an order to Piatnik, I’m getting 17 of their packs. Tarock, mostly, but also several different European regional packs. You see, I asked around for cards to review and Piatnik’s Finnish agent replied. I didn’t get anything for…

  • Enuk

    We played Enuk with Johanna. It’s a new children’s game from the Queen Kids line, designed by Stefan Dorra and Manfred Reindl. It’s so new that it isn’t in the Geek yet (I’ve added it, but it’s waiting for approval). Enuk is a fun little game, I would describe it as push-your-luck memory. Players turn…

  • Thursday session: Thief of Baghdad, Strohmann-Tarock

    I arrived in a bad time this week: two games had just started. I sat watching and discussing playing cards with Hannu (he had bought a rather entertaining German pack of cards, it’s a reproduction of 19th century Saxony pack or something like that, very funny). It turned out their Arkadia was moving slowly, so…