Gameblog

Tag: two-player games

  • 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…

  • Neuland and Attika

    Ah, Neuland! The land of strange, yet soothing line art and wide open spaces ready to be filled with pointy little buildings, free for all to use! How have I longed to wander through your fields, moving resources around! So, I met Olli H. for some games, and got him to play Neuland. He had…

  • Blue Moon City and Attika

    Our game session dwindled up to just two players, me and Olli, but I saw no need to change the main course. I’ve heard Blue Moon City is good with just two, so of course I had to try it. Turns it out works just fine. Both our games were quite exciting enough. Some folks…

  • More Phoenicia

    Three more rounds of two-player Phoenicia. Two were quite exciting: first one went to tiebreaker, second one I eventually won as Tommy continued to struggle with economical restraints. Storage is good thing to have. The third game was a slaughter; unfortunately I was in the receiving end. It’s fun, but the small number of cards…

  • Railroads in Scotland (with insects)

    I met Ilari today for games. Finally I was able to get Age of Steam Scotland — the free print-and-play two-player expansion — on table. Age of Steam in general doesn’t seem like a brilliant two-player game, but with a good map, it turned out be a rather pleasant experience. The thing about the Scotland…

  • 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…

  • Pacific Memoir and rats

    My last board game session this summer involved me, Olli and Memoir ’44: Pacific Theatre. The latest Memoir ’44 expansion turned out to be a blast. We played two scenarios. Japanese counter-attack on Guam was faster thing, while playing through the Iwo Jima Meat Grinder took almost an hour. Both were interesting, well-developed scenarios. The…

  • Elasund

    Finnish review of Elasund. Elasund is the latest Catan spinoff. Players are building the first city in Catan, trying to reap glory by getting their buildings to fill the city. The game has surface similarities to Catan — the resource-producing die roll, the ten victory points, using resources to build buildings that produce new resources,…

  • Elasund, Elasund, Elasund

    Met Olli today. The dish of the day was Elasund, the latest Settlers spin-off. The Settlers element is pretty much resource production roll to start the turn, 10 victory points to gather and… well, that’s about it. The game is about building a city. Smaller buildings produce influence and money, both of which are needed…

  • New game session: Farlander, Terra Nova

    Once again I met Olli for games, this time focusing on new material. We started with Farlander, since Olli had just bumped into it in a shop. The game looks nice, and inside the pretty box lies a simple war game. It’s so simple and minimalistic that I’m having a hard time calling it a…