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Back from Helcon!
Another Helcon is gone (well, they’re still playing, but I’m already back home) and boy, it was a good one! We started games on the train to Helsinki. Robert managed to get himself to the wrong train (for some reason there were to trains to Helsinki within three minutes), but I had Olli and Sami…
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Two-player card games: Schnapsen, WYSIWYG
I made a return to Schnapsen — I had tried it once before, about five years ago. It’s an extremely tight two-handed trick-taker. It’s an ace-ten game, played with a 20-card pack with all the non-scoring cards removed. It seems to be a game of memory: you must remember your own points and it certainly…
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Tarots
I finished reading the second volume of A History of Games Played with the Tarot Pack (haven’t received the first volume yet, it’s coming from US while the second one was sent from UK). It’s a marvellous book, highly recommended for serious tarot fans — less serious tarot fans will do with the Tarot section…
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Thursday session: camels and cards
Another Thursday session, this time with plenty of people: we had three games running at the same time. It was good, because that meant I was able to skip Bang!. Instead I played Yspahan. The game included two newbies and Olli, who has played about 500 games of the PC version. Now, guess the order?…
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Thursday session: Hart an der Grenze, Funny Fishing, cards
The second Thursday session drew six players, then two latecomers. We could use more, but this was certainly enough to get games going. It was nice to see some new faces. We warmed up with a quick round of Ubongo Mini, which is indeed a rather good for that purpose. My dear friends at Marektoy…
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First Thursday session: Ubongo Mini, cards
I’ve started a new weekly game night. My wife wants me to see other people than her and Nooa, basically. That’s perfectly fine with me! Our first night had a good turnout of seven people, so we got two games going. The other table played Web of Power, Geschenkt and Phoenicia, while our table played…
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Significant commercial card games
Here’s a question in the form of a GeekList: Which are the most significant commercial card games?
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Card game books
I’m looking for good books on card games. I don’t want just rule compilations or strategy books, but basically anything else on card games. I’ve already ordered David Parlett’s History of Card Games, but what else is there? Any suggestions?
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On The Spot Games
Yesterday I got a bunch of games from On The Spot Games. All the games are designed by James Ernest and Mike Selinker, and aimed towards somewhat mass-market crowd, I’d say — they are very simple games, some definitely aimed for the party game audience, others for couples or families. I already tried Kotsuku, which…
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Geocaching card game
I wouldn’t post this, but I know I have a geocacher or two in my audience, who might be interested… First to Find! is a trick-taking game about geocaching. Game homepage has some artwork. The cards look nice, but actually it’s a regular deck of cards with new art. The game, it seems, is a…