Gameblog

Category: Session reports

  • Leonardo da Vinci and Phoenicia

    I met the boys at the university for games. First up was my second go at Leonardo da Vinci. This one solified my opinion and dropped my rating to six. I can see it’s a good game and I would recommend it to people who like resource optimization games, but I don’t like it myself.…

  • Small session: Portobello Market, Der Elefant, Yspahan

    I met some guys at the university for games. We started off with Portobello Market, now with full set of four players. It’s clearly better with four than with two, that’s for sure. The one thing that defines the game is that it’s short. There just isn’t that much time, especially if you want to…

  • First games of Portobello Market

    I’ve now played Portobello Market twice, both two-player games with Johanna. She likes it, and so do I, to some extent. It’s a pretty game, but what do you expect from Michael Menzel? The man knows his trade. The mechanics work as well — I suppose you can expect that from a Hippodice winner. The…

  • Neuland and Attika

    Ah, Neuland! The land of strange, yet soothing line art and wide open spaces ready to be filled with pointy little buildings, free for all to use! How have I longed to wander through your fields, moving resources around! So, I met Olli H. for some games, and got him to play Neuland. He had…

  • Caylus Magna Carta at the Championships

    I visited the Finnish Board Game Championships yesterday. It was a smallish event, just seven four-player teams participating. However, the whole thing was put together quite quickly and with no previous experience, so no wonder it wasn’t larger. I wasn’t playing, just went to present my book and take a look. I did visit Lautapelit.fi…

  • Yspahan for Windows

    I finally got around downloading Westpark Gamers PC version of Yspahan. It’s from the same guy who did the St. Petersburg PC version. It’s a good game. It took me few games to figure it out — since I was too lazy to read the rules properly — but after few rounds I got it.…

  • Blue Moon City and Attika

    Our game session dwindled up to just two players, me and Olli, but I saw no need to change the main course. I’ve heard Blue Moon City is good with just two, so of course I had to try it. Turns it out works just fine. Both our games were quite exciting enough. Some folks…

  • More Phoenicia

    Three more rounds of two-player Phoenicia. Two were quite exciting: first one went to tiebreaker, second one I eventually won as Tommy continued to struggle with economical restraints. Storage is good thing to have. The third game was a slaughter; unfortunately I was in the receiving end. It’s fun, but the small number of cards…

  • Phoenicia at JKLM Interactive

    I played a game of Phoenicia at JKLM Interactive. It’s a neat idea: they’re offering a online game until the game is published. I’m not sure they’re going to have lots of players when the game is published and playing is £5 a year, but for now it’s a nice way to test the game.…

  • Just 4 Fun

    Just 4 Fun isn’t the most popular game, despite being a Spiel des Jahres finalist. From description, it sounds terribly inane. The name is horrible to start with. Four-in-a-row, with cards determining where you can play — can it be any more drab? But guess what, it’s a surprisingly good game anyway. Nothing special, that’s…