Gameblog

Category: Session reports

  • Celtica

    I got a review copy of Celtica, the much-dismissed game from Kramer and Kiesling. I don’t get the really bad ratings; the game has an average of 5.2 now, I’d expect something above 6 (like the 6.4 for That’s Life! — I think the games are on pretty equal level). We played with Johanna, and…

  • Age of Steam in Pennsylvania

    Yesterday I went to the Board game club with a mission: I want to play Age of Steam! It took some trying, but I got a group of four together to play 1830’s Pennsylvania. It immediately leaped to the top of the ranking: it’s one of my favourite AoS maps. The trick of the map…

  • Board game club: Terra Nova, Viva Topo!

    Board game club was a big hit yesterday, with almost a record crowd of over 20 gamers. I made a quick visit and had time for just a few games. I’ve wanted to play Terra Nova to get it off my system. Now I tried the game with four players and found out my expectations…

  • Einfach Genial with Johanna

    Johanna wanted to play something, so I offered Einfach Genial. I know she doesn’t like abstracts, but instead prefers more imaginative, theme-rich games, but I thought this could work… and it did! It’s not one of her favourites, but she enjoyed it. Of course, Einfach Genial is far from the world of serious high-skill abstracts,…

  • Hacienda at SpielByWeb

    We played a game of Hacienda at SpielByWeb. It was a pleasantly quick match, just a week. You can see the final results. I won, but it was a bit of a surprise. I was the only player to try the massive land chain -strategy, so perhaps that was it? I made a mistake, though:…

  • Pacific Memoir and rats

    My last board game session this summer involved me, Olli and Memoir ’44: Pacific Theatre. The latest Memoir ’44 expansion turned out to be a blast. We played two scenarios. Japanese counter-attack on Guam was faster thing, while playing through the Iwo Jima Meat Grinder took almost an hour. Both were interesting, well-developed scenarios. The…

  • Elasund and Farlander — final sessions

    I met the two Ollis and Antti from Board Game Society forums (he was picking up the Power Grid he bought from me) for games last Thursday. Little I knew that our peaceful off-season university cafe would be overrun by the attendents of a psychology conference… Well, we had a table for ourselves nonetheless, so…

  • Elasund, Elasund, Elasund

    Met Olli today. The dish of the day was Elasund, the latest Settlers spin-off. The Settlers element is pretty much resource production roll to start the turn, 10 victory points to gather and… well, that’s about it. The game is about building a city. Smaller buildings produce influence and money, both of which are needed…

  • New game session: Farlander, Terra Nova

    Once again I met Olli for games, this time focusing on new material. We started with Farlander, since Olli had just bumped into it in a shop. The game looks nice, and inside the pretty box lies a simple war game. It’s so simple and minimalistic that I’m having a hard time calling it a…

  • Magical crystals

    Another children’s game tested: Mago Magino goes in the closet towait for Nooa to grow up. The game is clever and fun, but offers little to adults. It’s just roll-and-move, with some risk assessment and some scope for tactics (how to use the wizard, how to use the two pawns each player has). The game…