Gameblog

Tag: Johanna

  • Mouse Carousel and Kids of Carcassonne

    I got some new children’s games to try out. Couple of them were instant hits (Zoowaboo doesn’t look like it’s really hot with two, so it’s still waiting) with Nooa. Mouse Carousel has six tubes and seven mice with different colours. There’s some cheese cubes on the middle of the tubes and to get to…

  • Ghost Stories and Steam over Holland

    I’m a wee bit late, since everybody played Ghost Stories back in Helcon last year, but I got it now as the Finnish version was published and we got it on the table today with Johanna — and got promptly butchered. It’s one hell of a difficult game! I suppose that’s good, as beating the…

  • Dominion with Johanna

    Dominion is officially a great game. I just played a game with Johanna — we haven’t played any games in a long time. She enjoyed Dominion enough to say she wants to play it again, which is rare. It’s also rare to find a game that doesn’t annoy Johanna a bit, she’s usually annoyed by…

  • Archeology with Johanna

    Johanna wanted to play a game while Nooa is taking a nap (he’s a good sleeper, sleeping easily two hours). We had talked about trying Thebes, so that’s what we did. The theme is attractive (always important) and the game is pleasantly easy to teach (despite some problems with the English rules). The game is…

  • Settlers of Catan Junior

    I tried Settlers of Catan Junior with Johanna yesterday. The game is a simplified version of Catan with an age recommendation of 6+. It has all the basic elements of Catan: production rolls, trading and building. Everything is just simplified. Production rolls are just d6, building rules are easier (players must build villages next to…

  • Christmas Agricola

    I must’ve been pretty nice, since Santa brought me Cuba (befriending game store owners helps). Haven’t tried yet, but the game looks drop dead gorgeous. Mechanisms seem sound as well. Should be fun, might be one of those “nice, but like too many other games” games. My dear wife agreed to play a game with…

  • First games of Portobello Market

    I’ve now played Portobello Market twice, both two-player games with Johanna. She likes it, and so do I, to some extent. It’s a pretty game, but what do you expect from Michael Menzel? The man knows his trade. The mechanics work as well — I suppose you can expect that from a Hippodice winner. The…

  • Zooloretto with two

    I got a review copy of Zooloretto, latest entry to the Coloretto family. It’s out now in Finnish (with Swedish, Norwegian and Danish rules included). The box was bigger than I expected, a full Kosmos-size box. Cute panda! The game isn’t a ripoff, but something quite clever. In its heart lies the basic Coloretto system:…

  • Die Säulen der Erde first thoughts

    Played a game of Die Säulen der Erde with Johanna yesterday, while the baby was sleeping. It was reasonably enjoyable. Nothing special — I’ve rated the game as 8 right now. As many of you have heard, there’s more than a passing resemblance to Caylus, but I think the comparison doesn’t hold too far. At…

  • Da Vinci’s Challenge

    I played Da Vinci’s Challenge with Johanna yesterday. She hated it, and I didn’t like it much better. Basically it’s a simple abstract game, where pieces are laid on a board with a Flower of Life pattern. It’s nice, except the game is somewhat boring, counting points is tedious as you must check carefully to…