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Thursday session: Dolmengötter, Vegas Showdown, Tarot
Die Dolmengötter is an ugly game. The theme is also silly: the game is abstract as heck, and while I understand that theming it must’ve been a real struggle, one wonders if this is a game that should simply be an abstract without any attempt at theme. Thomas Odenhoven’s other game, Portobello Market, works better…
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Thursday session: Cego, Citadels
Yesterday’s session was the last one before the Christmas break is over and we can return to university. So, card games (not that we don’t play card games at the university). We started with Cego, a curious German tarot game. In Cego, the widow (or blind) is 11 cards. The first bid is solo: you…
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Hot games for Q4/2007
And here’s the one final bit of trivia for 2007, the hot games for Q4. Shouldn’t be any surprises in store, but it’s good to have this one link in the chain of quarterly reports! Goodness continued from the previous quarter as the Thursday games were still in. Agricola is hands down the hottest game…
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Gaming year 2007
Another year of games is soon over. Gaming year 2006 was good, but I think this one was even better! At least in quality, not necessarily in quantity… Good new games (2006-2007 games) Agricola — This year brought two very good games, worthy of top-10 or even top-5 spot on my personal ratings. Agricola is…
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Thursday session: Xiangqi, Tarot, Tichu
We had to do a last-minute location switch because university is already closed for Christmas. Well, four players gathered at the bar we chose to play in. Not bad, really, as four is all you need… Jaakko was first to arrive and as I had set up a Xiangqi board to go through some example…
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Thursday session: Slovenian Tarok, Ottocento
When I arrived, the guys were already playing Mhing. No problem: I dealt myself in and joined the game. It’s flexible that way… Didn’t win the first hand, obviously, but in the second, I got out on what, fourth or fifth card. Getting three jokers in the deal sure helps. My hand was a true…
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Hungarian Tarokk online
RummyNetwork is a Hungarian online game room. It’s free and has several games available: few variations of Rummy, Zsír, Ulti, Schnapsen, Bridge… but most important, they have Hungarian Tarokk. In three variations, even: the regular Paskievics, the glorious Illustrated and the confusing High Tarokk. The user interface isn’t the best possible and the card images…
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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: Tarot, Ubongo
Yesterday’s session started with a quick round of Larry Levy’s WYSIWYG. It’s an advanced version of German Whist, a trick-taking game for two players. Players bid for the right to become a declarer and choose trumps. In the first phase players collect new cards to fill their hands with (two cards are shown, winner of…
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Thursday session: Tarot, Jass
First game today was Jass. Since there are at least 70 variations of Jass, it’s probably best to be more precise: we played Molotow Jass. Molotow is the four-player variant of Mittlere Jass. Plus-Minus Jass is another variant of Mittlere Jass and Cosmic Eidex is a variant of Plus-Minus Jass. Still with me? So, it’s…