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Quick BSW session: San Juan and Caylus
I popped in BrettSpielWelt to play few games. San Juan didn’t go too well for me: everybody else had Prefectures and Quarrys, I didn’t get any… It was an obvious loss, and I don’t think I did that many mistakes, either. Well, the cards giveth and the cards taketh away, that’s what you get. Caylus,…
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Gameblog wins awards!
I’m proud to tell you, my dear readers, that Gameblog has won an award! Gone Gaming Board Game Internet Awards jury gave Gameblog the best session report award for my Essen 2005 coverage. That’s not all! Gameblog also got an honorable mention for the award of the best game blog (winner was Chris Farrell’s blog,…
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My favourite designers
Larry Levy had a column in Boardgame News called Rating the designers. He wrote about two different approaches to rating the designers, Knizia approach (counting a sum-based score from ratings given to designer’s games) and Seyfarth approach (counting an average). First approach favours someone like Knizia, who has a wide repertoire of games with varying…
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Gargon
A review of Gargon is up on my site. Gargon by Rüdiger Dorn is a small card game from Amigo. Gargon is one of those kind of traditional, yet quirky games. The idea is basically a trick-taking game, but it would stretch the definition of trick-taking to fully include Gargon in that lot. Weird ideas…
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Good service from Spiele-Offensive
I must say Spiele-Offensive gets a nod from me. I recently placed a big order (almost 600 euros) there, driven by their selection (Neuland being the biggest incentive, I mean, I thought the game was firmly in the unavailable, you’ll-never-ever-get-it category). Ordering and paying (with credit card through PayPal) was easy and their shipping costs…
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Blue Moon
Blue Moon is a fantasy world developed by Reiner Knizia and at the same time the first game set in that world. A board game is on the way, so it won’t remain the only Blue Moon game for a long time. Gotta get them all Blue Moon is about eight different peoples, all mixed…
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In the Shadow of the Emperor
In the Shadow of the Emperor seemed pretty cool when it came out. It was touted as a real gamer’s game with clever new mechanics. However, for some reason I played it twice and forgot about it afterwards. What happened? Setting In the Shadow of the Emperor is set in Germany in the late middle…
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Blockster
I wrote a review of Blockster (in Finnish and sorry, no naked ladies on the marginals). Blockster is a small dexterity game, where players are trying to stack small plastic pieces according to cards. There’s a timer to add pressure! When someone fails, everybody else scores a point. The basic idea is nice, but the…
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Louis XIV
Rüdiger Dorns Louis XIV started Aleas new mid-size series. Its not a big board game, but not a card-game either, but something in between. Theres no actual board, though there is something quite like it: a grid made of cardboard tiles, functioning as a board. The game definitely plays like a board game. Palace intrigue…
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Around the World in 80 Days
Around the World in 80 Days by Michael Rieneck is based on Jules Verne’s book. Players are sent from London to circumnavigate the globe, hoping to make it back to London in 80 days. A race has begun! Race around the world So, it’s a race game. Race games have generally two problems, I think:…