Gameblog

  • About
  • Reviews
  • Gaming Year 2025
  • 1825 notes
  • Monumento and a curious design decision

    I scored a review copy of Monumento (also known as Make’n’Break). It’s a Ravensburger release with a rather simple idea. Players have 10 large colourful wooden blocks and a deck of cards. A card is turned from the deck and the player with the blocks must build the pile of blocks described in the card.…

    March 4, 2005
    More about games

    luck element, Monumento, promo games
  • Memoir ’44

    I wrote a lengthy review of Memoir ’44, in Finnish, as usual. I don’t think there’s much need for me to write a review of Memoir ’44 — just go and read the 20 or so reviews the Geek already has. The game has pretty good ratings and a ranking of 8th in the Geek…

    March 2, 2005
    Reviews

    Battle Cry, Commands & Colors, luck element, Memoir ’44, review, war games
  • The Games Journal is out

    The latest issue of The Games Journal is out. Check out the article on Ambition, Mike Church’s card game. I enjoyed the article very much and I’m certainly looking forward to reading the next installment. My friend Stefu has also created a nice Black Vienna puzzle. I solved it, so it can’t be very difficult,…

    March 1, 2005
    Outside world

    Ambition, Black Vienna, Games Journal, puzzles
  • Pirate’s Cove

    I wrote a review of Pirate’s Cove (in Finnish; review number 92!). I like Pirate’s Cove. I like the fancy bits (I think it’s one of the prettiest games I’ve ever seen), the theme is great and the game is simply a blast to play. However, I’m still rating it as 7. The game’s main…

    February 28, 2005
    Reviews

    dice games, double guessing, nice bits, Pirate’s Cove, review, role-playing games
  • Queen’s Necklace, Samurai and Höhlengrölen

    I’ve been busy writing reviews. I have already 91 reviews on my web site — I hear the 100 review mark calling my name already. That’ll take some time, but soon, soon I’ll be there. I’m not going to write long reviews of these games now; I’ll just summarize my thoughts shortly. Links are to…

    February 25, 2005
    Reviews

    Höhlengrölen, Queen’s Necklace, review, Samurai
  • Translation of Don

    I wrote a Finnish translation of Don. Enjoy. I noticed the exchange variant in the rules — has anybody given it a go? Is it any good?

    February 23, 2005
    Less about games

    Don, rules translations
  • About reviewing games

    A typical subject for discussion is how many times a reviewer should play a game before reviewing it? I know I’ve lowered my standards as I’ve written more and more reviews and I’ve even written reviews based on one play of the game (and even part of one play, as was the case with Time…

    February 22, 2005
    Less about games

    blogs
  • Flowerpower

    I’m churning out review after review… This time I did Flowerpower. Flowerpower is a relaxing little game in the Kosmos two-player range. Designed by relatively unknown authors Peter Haluszka and Angelika Fassauer, Flowerpower is often mentioned as a good couples game. It certainly has some good qualities: it’s a two-player game, easy to learn, easy…

    February 21, 2005
    Reviews

    Flowerpower, review, tile-laying, two-player games
  • Einfach Genial

    Another review I wrote: Einfach Genial aka Ingenious aka Mensa Connections. Einfach Genial is a clever game by master Knizia. It’s an abstract game, a rare thing from Knizia whose games are often fairly thinly themed, but still have at least some theme. Some have questioned if Einfach Genial would’ve won the Spiel des Jahres…

    February 19, 2005
    Reviews

    abstracts, Einfach Genial, Reiner Knizia, review, tile-laying
  • Dune

    I wrote a review of Dune (in Finnish). I haven’t played Dune in ages — there’s not a mention of it in this blog, for example, and I haven’t missed many sessions since I started writing. Usually if I own a game and don’t play it, there’s a reason. With Dune, the reasons are obvious.…

    February 19, 2005
    Reviews

    A Game of Thrones, books, Cosmic Encounter, Dune, review
←Previous Page
1 … 92 93 94 95 96 … 154
Next Page→

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)


Search

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)

Gameblog

Copyright 2022 Mikko Saari

Proudly powered by WordPress

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it.