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  • Gaming Year 2016

    2016 was a good year. Lots of games. I made a new record for the number of new games tried. My previous record was 93 new games in 2011, but this year I reached 133 new games. This is a record that’s unlikely to be broken any time soon. I don’t really want to. I’ve decided…

    December 31, 2016
    Statistical lunacy

    1860: Railways on the Isle of Wight, Abluxxen, Afrikan tähti, Agricola, Agricola: All Creatures Big and Small, Antike II, Arboretum, Battle Sheep, Beasty Bar, Best Treehouse Ever, Blue Moon, Burgle Bros, Castles of Mad King Ludwig, Caverna, Coconuts, Colony, Completto, Dale of Merchants, Deus, Dixit, Dokmus, Europa Tour, Exploding Kittens, Fashion Show, Fields of Arle, Flamme Rouge, Flick ‘Em Up, FTF: First to Find, Ghost Blitz, Great Western Trail, Hero Ralms, Honshu, Karuba, Key to the City: London, Keyflower, Kivi, Kyoto Protocol, La Granja, Le Havre: Inland Port, Lewis & Clark, Loony Quest, Lost Legacy, Love Letter, Mechs vs Minions, Memory, Monikers, Muumi Viidakkoseikkailu, Nations: The Dice Game, Oh My Goods!, Ora et Labora, Pandemic Legacy, Quadropolis, Quartermaster General, Rails of New England, Schildkrötenrennen, Snake Oil, Solarius Mission, Star Wars: Rebellion, Stich-Meister, Super Rhino, Terraforming Mars, The City, The Colonists, The Little Prince: Make Me a Planet, The Voyages of Marco Polo, Tokaido, Trambahn, Trans Europa, Twilight Struggle, Unusual Suspects
  • Träxx

    I bought a new copy of this game myself. The game: Träxx by Steffen Benndorf and Reinhard Staupe, published by Nürnberger-Spiele-Verlag in 2015. Elevator pitch: A quick simultaneous play route-building filler. May the best route win! What’s in the box? Four boards, four dry-erase pens, fifteen cards and rules. The components are minimalistic, but perfectly functional. Colours are bright…

    December 1, 2016
    Reviews

    Träxx
  • Heat

    I bought an used copy of this game myself. The game: Heat by Dave Chalker and Chris Cieslik, published by Asmadi Games in 2015. Elevator pitch: Heist-themed drafting game, with artwork inspired by Saul Bass. What’s in the box? 34 cards, a small board, bunch of cubes and some plastic chips for money. Component-wise, this is almost…

    November 18, 2016
    Reviews

    Heat
  • Dungeon Rush

    I received a free review copy from the publisher. The game: Dungeon Rush by father and son team Rustan and Eli Håkansson, published by Lautapelit.fi in 2016. Elevator pitch: Slapjack in a dungeon. Turn over monster cards and slap the ones your heroes can beat. What’s in the box? Bunch of cards: 10 oversized hero cards and 110…

    October 31, 2016
    Reviews

    Dungeon Rush
  • Triominos Tribalance

    I received a free review copy from the Finnish distributor. The game: Triominos Tribalance by Michael Sohre, published by Goliath in 2013. Originally published as Tri-Ba-Lance by Theta Games in 1995. Elevator pitch: A balancing challenge: try to get the best pieces on the best locations on a wobbly board without unbalancing the board. What’s in the box? There’s…

    September 17, 2016
    Reviews

    Triominos Tribalance
  • Dokmus

    Dokmus is published by Lautapelit.fi, and I received a free review copy from the publisher. The game: Dokmus by Mikko Punakallio, published by Lautapelit.fi in 2016. Elevator pitch: A tactical puzzle. Twist and move the boards in order to expand your influence all over the board. What’s in the box? There are eight double-sided board tiles that are used to…

    September 16, 2016
    Reviews

    Dokmus, Kingdom Builder
  • Scotland Yard Junior

    Scotland Yard Junior is published in Finland by Ravensburger, and I received a free review copy from the Finnish distributor. The game: Scotland Yard Junior by Michael Schacht, published by Ravensburger in 2015. Elevator pitch: A new version of the old classic Scotland Yard, redesigned for children. The game has been simplified a lot and feels like a different game,…

    September 6, 2016
    Reviews

    Scotland Yard Junior
  • Rüben Rallye

    Rüben Rallye is published in Finnish as Kaniralli by Haba, and I received a free review copy from the Finnish distributor Tevella. The game: Rüben Rallye by Sylvain Ménager, published by Haba in 2016. Elevator pitch: Beautiful roll and move game for kids, but with an added element of distance approximation thrown in. What’s in the box? Haba is known for…

    August 31, 2016
    Reviews

    Rüben Rallye
  • Kakerlaloop

    Kakerlaloop is published in Finnish as La Cucaracha Loop by Ravensburger, and I received a free review copy. The game: Kakerlaloop by Inka and Markus Brand, published by Ravensburger in 2015. Elevator pitch: Roll and move your bugs across the board, but watch out for the Hexbug Nano cockroach that tries to bump the bugs off the spaces. What’s…

    August 26, 2016
    Reviews

    Kakerlaloop
  • Fashion Show

    Fashion Show is published by Finnish Peliko, and I received a free review copy. The game: Fashion Show by Theora Design, published by Peliko in 2016. Elevator pitch: A simple tile-laying pattern recognition game with a Top Model -like fashion theme. What’s in the box? A large board checkered with different cloth patterns, a bunch of thin cards. The…

    August 18, 2016
    Reviews

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Rating scale

Here’s the rating scale I use, and how it corresponds to BGG ratings:

  • Enthusiastic: I love the game and want to play it. (9, 10)
  • Suggest: Good game, I want to play it and will usually suggest it. (7, 8)
  • Indifferent: I’ll play the game, if necessary, but won’t suggest it. (5, 6)
  • Avoid: I don’t want to play this game. (1-4)

(Thanks to Brian Bankler)


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Of green

The green colour of the sidebar is the Brunswick Green used by Nationalised British Railways – Western Region:

“A different color, also called “Brunswick green”, was the colour for passenger locomotives of the Grouping and then the nationalized British Railways. There were three shades of these colours and they are defined under British Standard BS381C – 225, BS381C – 226, and BS381C – 227 (ordered from lightest to darkest). The Brunswick Green used by the Nationalised British Railways – Western Region for passenger Locomotives was BS381C – 227 (rgb(30:62:46)). RAL6005 is a close substitute to BS381C – 227. A characteristic of these colours was the ease for various railway locations to mix them by using whole pots of primary colours – hence the ability to get reasonably consistent colours with manual mixing half a century and more ago.”

Wikipedia: Shades of green


There is a difference from play with dice, because the latter is open, whereas play with cards takes place from ambush, because they are concealed.

– Girolamo Cardano: Liber de ludo aleae (1564), translated by Sydney Gould as The Book on Games of Chance (Princeton University, 1953)

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