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New games
Got Elasund and Farlander from Tactic. Both are interesting games in their own way. Elasund is, of course, the latest game in the Catan franchise. The Catan basics are there (die roll for resource production, building to ten victory points), but outside that it’s something fairly new compared to other Catan games. There’s one aspect…
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Margin for Error preview
I got a copy of Margin for Error, the first game from Sagely Games, to test. Unfortunately I can’t see myself having an opportunity to test the game in near future, so I thought I’d write a bit of a preview based on the rules. The game is familiar enough, so I’m quite confident of…
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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…
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Battles in the east
I met Olli for a session of Memoir ’44. We ended up exploring the Eastern Front expansion. Both scenarios we played — Gates of Moscow and Breakout to Lisyanka — were excellent. Add the excellent Suomussalmi scenario to that and the expansion pack starts to feel like a pretty good purchase. The scenarios are great.…
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Nacht der Magier
I played a game of Nacht der Magier with Johanna yesterday. We played in light; it was nice to see the game worked well without the darkness effect. It’s better in the dark, but fine in light. Thus, a review in Finnish. Nacht der Magier, Magician’s Night, has a rare gimmick. The game is played…
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Mice and a cat
I got this year’s Marektoy children’s games lineup. It’s a nice bunch of games from Drei Magier and Selecta, mostly. Selecta games impressed me: like Haba, Selecta is a producer of wooden toys and the games have great components. I played two rounds of Viva Topo! with Johanna yesterday. The game is the Kinderspiel des…
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Small two-player session
My games with Olli continued on Friday. We started with Kahuna — it was the final test. Olli lost big time; he got the first scoring, but then my defensive island network made it quite clear there was no way he could beat me. Final score was 6-1. Not good. He didn’t like the game,…
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Kahuna
Review of Kahuna in Finnish. Kahuna is a game that has bugged and frustrated me. I’ve found it hard to form my opinion of it, but now it’s clear: I want to like it, but I can’t. The game is about building magic bridges between the islands in an archipelago. Whenever a player has the…
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Living with a baby
I’m keeping my personal life out of this blog most of the time, but now I can’t help myself: it’s been fun living with a baby! Nooa is a sweet boy. He’s a month and a day old today, and already starting to smile at us and support his head all by himself. Soon he’ll…