Gameblog

Tag: luck element

  • Pillars of the Earth for four

    Yesterday I got a group together to play Pillars of the Earth. Last time I played, I wasn’t thrilled about the two-player game. The four-player game is much better — yet still I dropped my rating from eight to seven. First the good parts: with four, the game has plenty of tension. As just about…

  • Himalaya

    Review of Himalaya in Finnish. Himalaya appeared on many radars when it was nominated for Spiel des Jahres in 2005. The game was formerly known as Marchands d’Empire and available as print-and-play. The new edition, published by Tilsit and by Marektoy in Finland, is rethemed: medieval traders became yak caravans in Himalaya. The new theme…

  • Celtica

    Review of Celtica in Finnish Celtica, a game by well-known designer duo Wolfgang Kramer and Michael Kiesling was published recently in Finland. I was curious to try the game; for background, I had read the less-than-favourable comments from the Geek, combined with Bruno Faidutti’s recommendation. The game certainly looks delicious, from the beautiful box cover…

  • Viva Topo!

    Finnish edition of this review It’s easy to dismiss Viva Topo! as a simple game for kids. That’s what it is, but it’s also more! It’s become the current favourite of me and my wife. We play it together, as our son is still way too young for board games. Viva Topo! is a simple…

  • Celtica

    I got a review copy of Celtica, the much-dismissed game from Kramer and Kiesling. I don’t get the really bad ratings; the game has an average of 5.2 now, I’d expect something above 6 (like the 6.4 for That’s Life! — I think the games are on pretty equal level). We played with Johanna, and…

  • Louis XIV

    Rüdiger Dorn’s Louis XIV started Alea’s new mid-size series. It’s not a big board game, but not a card-game either, but something in between. There’s 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…

  • Small game session: Louis XIV, Modern Art, Turbo Taxi

    I met some guys last Saturday for a small session of games. I’ll be missing the next two board game club sessions for various reasons (mostly Essen), so it was good to get some games going. We started with Turbo Taxi, as we were one player short. Well, the missing player joined us after the…

  • FarFalia

    I wrote a review of FarFalia. My session report summarised the game pretty well already, but here goes again: FarFalia is a trick-taking game for five players. It supports two and three with dummies and four with different arrangements, but it’s designed for five and shines that way. The game features a fairly standard deck…

  • 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.…

  • 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…