Gameblog

Author: Mikko

  • Nacht der Magier

    I played a game of Nacht der Magier with Johanna yesterday. We played in light; it was nice to see the game worked well without the darkness effect. It’s better in the dark, but fine in light. Thus, a review in Finnish. Nacht der Magier, Magician’s Night, has a rare gimmick. The game is played…

  • Mice and a cat

    I got this year’s Marektoy children’s games lineup. It’s a nice bunch of games from Drei Magier and Selecta, mostly. Selecta games impressed me: like Haba, Selecta is a producer of wooden toys and the games have great components. I played two rounds of Viva Topo! with Johanna yesterday. The game is the Kinderspiel des…

  • Small two-player session

    My games with Olli continued on Friday. We started with Kahuna — it was the final test. Olli lost big time; he got the first scoring, but then my defensive island network made it quite clear there was no way he could beat me. Final score was 6-1. Not good. He didn’t like the game,…

  • Kahuna

    Review of Kahuna in Finnish. Kahuna is a game that has bugged and frustrated me. I’ve found it hard to form my opinion of it, but now it’s clear: I want to like it, but I can’t. The game is about building magic bridges between the islands in an archipelago. Whenever a player has the…

  • Living with a baby

    I’m keeping my personal life out of this blog most of the time, but now I can’t help myself: it’s been fun living with a baby! Nooa is a sweet boy. He’s a month and a day old today, and already starting to smile at us and support his head all by himself. Soon he’ll…

  • War, trading and hot rats

    I met Olli for the first proper game session after Nooa’s (that’s the name of our boy) birth. It was fun, to have a small break from baby care and maintenance. We started off with Memoir ’44, since that was high on Olli’s list. He had played Battle Cry before, so rules explanations were minimal.…

  • Frank’s Zoo

    I notice I have reviewed Frank’s Zoo a long time ago on my Finnish site, yet a review hasn’t appeared here. Let’s fix that. Frank’s Zoo (aka Zoff im Zoo) is a climbing game with a twist. The animal theme is obvious, considering the authors: the Frank in the title is the game designer Frank…

  • Tags

    I installed a new version of Movable Type, which features tags. So, I’ve started tagging my entries. I think the tags are a good addition: they work a bit like categories, but are a lot more specific and thus can be a lot more useful in some situations. Clicking the tags will show you all…

  • War dreams

    I must confess. The guys at the Board Game Society forums have been talking about Advanced Squad Leader a lot, particularly the starter kits. Despite what I’ve said earlier about preferring these detailed strategy games on computer, I’m feeling a small pining for something like that. EastFront is another example of games that have been…

  • Roads and Boats by Web

    There’s a PBW implementation of Roads and Boats! It’s called Roads & Boats by Web and it’s currently in early testing. I want to test, too! I set up a two-player game for testing purposes. You can join the game; the password is “gameblog”. Please only join if you plan to finish the game in…