Category: Session reports

  • Weekend of Industrial Waste (with some Dvonn)

    I was visiting Jyväskylä last weekend. In addition to some surprisingly pleasing physical work (painting boards and a wall, building scaffolding), we played lots of games. During the years, I’ve introduced several games with variable success. Some have been huge hits (Puerto Rico and St. Petersburg are the most notable examples). Sometimes there have been…

  • Small game session: Louis XIV, Modern Art, Turbo Taxi

    I met some guys last Saturday for a small session of games. I’ll be missing the next two board game club sessions for various reasons (mostly Essen), so it was good to get some games going. We started with Turbo Taxi, as we were one player short. Well, the missing player joined us after the…

  • Mhing and votes

    Johanna handed me my butt, properly kicked, after a quick match of Mhing. She won four rounds, I got two, with score total of 160-64. She’s phenomenal! Finnish Players’ Picks -votes have been trickling in. 51 gamers have already voted. The results look both interesting and unsurprising. I guess it’s not a big surprise which…

  • Tea and Metro

    Metro is of suitable weight and length to be played over a cup of tea, it seems. However, I’m afraid we’re not going to play the game again. Even though Johanna won the game hands down, she thought it was somewhat ho-hum. I agree — it can feel a bit pointless. It’s kind of fun…

  • Easier Antiquity

    I played a game of Antiquity with Johanna today. This time I chose to play the easier introductory game, without pollution and famine. The game was much easier, but still interesting to play. Johanna picked up the game quite well and we soon got off to a good start. When it was time to build…

  • Board game club: Antiquity and Shadows over Camelot

    Yesterday we played the first game of the much-expected Antiquity. Teaching the rules was fairly straightforward, but I didn’t stress quite enough that Cart Shops were needed to build inns and cities, too, because I think everybody but me fumbled with that at some point. The game progressed slowly. It took four hours, before Robert…

  • Lost in the valley with no shopping

    We played Lost Valley after a while. This time we both explored the same side of the river, which made things a bit more interesting. Johanna’s fear of getting locked in the same two strategies was reduced, as she had a good time hunting animals and stealing gold from my mines. I played real idiot…

  • Blueberry Africa

    Just a quick game of Africa while we waited for the blueberry pie to bake. It was over fairly swiftly; actually, it was just on time. Johanna lead throughout the game, even though I almost caught her lead. However, good camp scoring in the end really finished the game for her advantage. I asked how…

  • Around the World in 72 Days

    The guys at the Marektoy were kind enough to send me a copy of the Finnish edition of Around the World in 80 Days along with the games I’ve translated. It wasn’t on my list of games to get, but sure I’ll like to have it if I get it for free… I tried it…

  • Monopoly Card Game

    I coaxed Johanna to try the Monopoly Card Game. Designed by Phil Orbanes, it’s basically a Monopoly-themed Rummy game. Players try to form their 10-card hands into complete sets of colour groups and bonus cards. First player to build a ready hand scores five extra cards, but everybody counts points. The game is very much…