Gameblog

Category: More about games

  • Earth and Space Base

    I’m usually not interested in new games, but apparently, I can be persuaded. Something in Earth attracted me; I’m not sure what it was. I checked the rule book, which seemed complicated at first sight, and then went and learnt the game. It’s not that tricky, really. It’s a game of many cards, tableau building…

  • Texas Showdown with Seas of Strife rules

    Texas Showdown is a very good trick-taking game for five or six players. The point is to avoid taking tricks. The main twist in the game is the suit-following rules: you have to follow suit, but if you can’t, you play anything, and other players can then follow your suit. The trick is won by…

  • Drawing tube lines in London

    Drawing tube lines in London

    Next Station: London by Matthew Dunstan is another game in the X-and-write genre; in this case, a flip-and-write (I prefer the Finnish catch-all term “coupon-filler”). Each player has a fairly abstract map of London in front of them and must draw four underground lines to generate as many points as possible. The tube lines are…

  • Unlock! Legendary Adventures

    Unlock! Legendary Adventures

    Another Unlock! box arrived from the library. This one has three adventures loosely themed with legends. Action Story starts with a chase scene where the players must reach a fleeing criminal. The mood takes a swift turn soon. This is the easiest adventure in the box and relatively straightforward to solve, but it’s fun for…

  • First impressions: Scout

    First impressions: Scout

    Japanese Scout was designed by Kei Kajino and published by Oink Games in 2019. It’s a small box card game with a good reputation: it was a nominee for the Spiel des Jahres award in 2022, and several friends have praised it. Since my game group likes tricky card games, I thought Scout might be…

  • Unlock! Game Adventures

    Unlock! Game Adventures

    I was two Unlock! games behind. Fortunately, both of the sets are available in the local library. The first one to arrive was the later one; this one had fewer reservations. Unlock! Game Adventures uses other Asmodee titles as source material. There are scenarios for Ticket to Ride, Mysterium and Pandemic. It’s a pretty good…

  • Top 100 list, 2022 edition

    Top 100 list, 2022 edition

    My annual top 100 list is now out on BoardGameGeek: Mikko’s top 100 — 2022 edition. Making this year’s list was a slightly sad process. I have a two-year rule for my list: this year, I’ll consider games that I’ve played in 2022, 2021 or 2020. This meant a list of 146 titles. I’ve last…

  • Mathias Wigge interview

    Mathias Wigge interview

    Mathis Wigge is the designer of Ark Nova, a tremendously popular board game about zookeeping. What makes it even more impressive is the fact that it’s his first released board game. I interviewed Wigge by email to find out more about where Ark Nova came from. This interview was originally published in Finnish at Lautapeliopas.…

  • Grabbing chips left and right

    Grabbing chips left and right

    I played games with my game group after a long break. We played primarily familiar titles: Ark Nova, Krass Kariert, and Tyrants of the Underdark. However, we also gave a new game a try. Family Inc. is a Reiner Knizia title, published by Piatnik in 2021. Like many other Knizia titles, it’s based on an…

  • Trendy zookeeping

    Trendy zookeeping

    I’m, of course, talking about Ark Nova, one of the hottest titles at the moment. Designed by first-time designer Mathias Wigge and published by Feuerland Spiele, Ark Nova has been very popular recently. A Finnish game store got a few dozen copies and sold them out immediately. I managed to secure a copy for myself…