Author: Mikko

  • Dune

    I wrote a review of Dune (in Finnish). I haven’t played Dune in ages — there’s not a mention of it in this blog, for example, and I haven’t missed many sessions since I started writing. Usually if I own a game and don’t play it, there’s a reason. With Dune, the reasons are obvious.…

  • Bad rules of Victory & Honor

    Peter Sarrett writes about bad rules, mentioning Victory & Honor as an example. He’s spot on: Victory & Honor has probably the worst rulebook I’ve ever seen in a good game. I practically threw the rule book across the room three times while explaining the rules. It took us MUCH longer than it should have…

  • Ambition

    Those reading rec.games.board or rec.games.card might have noticed a thread called truth about church’s ambition. It had nothing to do with church, it’s in fact about Mike Church and his card game Ambition. For some reason there’s a flamewar of sorts going on around the game. Why, I have no idea, but the thread, especially…

  • Rush Hour

    I bought myself a Rush Hour puzzle set and all three extra card sets. It was a total impulse purchase, I just thought it would be interesting to try. I’ve tried Lunar Lockout, another puzzle from the same company and enjoyed that (that one is very much like Ricochet Robot), so I thought Rush Hour…

  • Boardgame Club meeting: Niagara, Fresh Fish

    Our club meeting yesterday drew a record crowd of 25 gamers. At one point we had five games going on at the same time! That’s amazing and I do hope this is a continuing trend and not just a fluke. Some of the expansion was caused by a group of people interested to try Age…

  • ÜberGeekBadge

    I’ve achieved something: I have an ÜberGeekBadge. Super neat! You can admire my excellence at my profile page. You’ll also see that I’ve been generous. Creating the Geek Supporter badge was a brilliant idea in the first place and adding the year made it even better. Now the badge will become outdated unless one drops…

  • Domaine

    There’s a new Finnish review of Domaine posted on my website. Domaine is a reworking of Teuber’s earlier Löwenherz (and published under that name in Germany). I’ve tried both and I think Domaine is an excellent work and much better game than it’s predecessor. The game’s about medieval lords, fighting over the lands while the…

  • Web site and a new translation

    I added a new translation on my website: Carcassonne: The Count. Thanks to Markku Jaatinen for doing the translation! I’ve been working on my reviews a lot, recently. You’ve noticed few new reviews I’ve written, but even more has been done behind the scenes. I finally finished moving my reviews to a new content management…

  • Afternoon of games

    I had some friends over for games. First one to arrive was Antti, another Tampere gamer who I had met in Helsinki, actually — he came to HelCon. We started the festivities with a quick match of Lord of the Rings: The Confrontation. It was a smooth victory for me. Quick exchange of units left…

  • Age of Steam

    I wrote a review of Age of Steam (in Finnish). Age of Steam is probably my favourite heavier game right now. As the name betrays, it’s about the golden age of steam engines, the most romantic and glorified period of rail transport. A slightly boring theme, perhaps, as laying railway tracks across the map of…