Cartagena and 7th Wonders

This Christmas, after several years, we did manage to finally have a board game evening with some friends. This despite me feeling like crap since I did get the flu (and yes, we got offered to play also other evenings after Christmas, but the status of the whole family had degenerated into hospital mode).
Considering the health status my performance was dreadful ... (yes, I blame it on the fuzzy head to the fever/cold)

The first game we played was Cartagena. The game is pretty simple and there is a minimum of luck required in fetching the right cards to proceed. Then, yes, some good strategy (I lacked that totally, as always).
Each player has four pirates and they have to go through a path to reach a boat. The player whose pirates reach the boat first win.
The pirates move on the path (the board) by discarding cards: each card represents a symbol that is on the board and when one uses the card one moves on the board reaching out for its symbol. For fetching new cards, one has to move backward.
So, the whole game is about finding a good balance between moving forward and backward, obtaining proper cards. 

Cartagena

 The game doesn't last too long and can be played by maximum 5 players, so it is quite nice to play when one doesn't have too much time. Since also it is quite simple (at least, there are not five billion steps required to understand how to play) it is perfect when maybe one hasn't been playing a game for several years. Ok, yes, in my case that didn't help out...

7th Wonders is instead much more elaborated (so, let's not think of what I didn't do when we played it). So, of course, also more entertaining since one has to think about many more parameters than moving the pirates on the board.
Each player has one of the 7th wonders (I took Ephesus) that can be built in different steps. There are different ages one go through. Each age is basically a round of cards that get passed between the players at each turn. The complexity of the cards and the prerequisites to play them or use them is higher the later the age of the world is.
There are cards of different color and therefore different properties.
The different cards, the money, the building steps of the wonder provide points to the final countdown. At the end of the last age, all the points will then be calculated and then the winner will be announced.

7th Wonders

The game is very intriguing and in fact it is ranked quite high. When playing it resembled a lot of many different games that we have played. I thought of Dominion as well as Colosseum.
Pity though that we managed to play it just once, then it was definitely too late for two retired people as we have turned out.

Christmas gaming

It is nice that finally, with at least one of the kids, we can start to play again some board games and it is nice that she likes to play too (although when she is in a bad mood she has very hard time to accept to lose or the game rules).

This Christmas we have played two games: Letters to Santa and Sagaland.

Letters to Santa was a present we got last year, when we had our epic Christmas party.

Letters to Santa

The game is quite simple, but there can be some nice strategy played based on thinking how many cards are around in the game and also, observing a bit the other players' behaviour. The goal of the game is winning 4 game rounds. For doing that one can kick out of the turn the other players or by having the highest card at the end of the game.

There are 8 different types of cards and each of them has a specific action associated. Some of the actions can result in getting the other players out of the game, but mostly there are cards exchanges and views and if one plays smart, there is a good chance to be the winner. 

A minimum amount of luck is required, but that is ok, considering that the game doesn't become frustrating and still skills are valuable. 

A perfect quick family game that has conquered us all!

Sagaland is instead one present that Santa has delivered to Isabella. The setting is cute, based on the classical fairytales (Rapunzel, The princess and the frog, ...) and the mechanics are quite simple, although the complexity of the game can be high. Many different strategies can result in becoming the winner. 

On the board there are 7 symbols hidden under a tree. One card at the time shows which symbol one must search and "report" to the king in the castle. The winner is the one that has managed to collect most cards. 

To do that one should have quite good memory. But there are different strategies that can be applied, mixing bluffing with intuition and, thanks to the "magic" element, a good dose of randomness.

Sagaland board

It is not always easy to play with kids, because it is already complex to explain how one can roll and count the dice (there is quite some flexibility), but even though one doesn't explore the whole game depth with them, the game can still be intruiguing.

Portobello Market

No, we haven't been to London visiting Portobello Road Market, but few months ago we managed to organize one of our epic game afternoons (which few years back were regularly happening once a month!) and among the game played, we discover Portobello Market.

The game is over! ©Mattias Pettersson

The game is targeting a quite young bunch of players, but we thought that, strategically wise, it was not as simply as it could have been. Or maybe we made it more complicated ;-)
It is in general quite quick to learn (especially if one starts to play it) and it is also reasonably quick to play, hence perfect for us that nowadays don't have so much free time for being real geeks around some board game.

Goal of the game is to take the best location(s) for building stalls for the market and by doing that, one can be very nasty to the other players and that turned out, for us, to be the key point in order to win or lose. Nothing was given for granted and it was not so obvious which was the best strategy, neither who would have won, although it could have been guessed. What I mean is that the game turned out to be still open and not "one way" for the one that had the best luck at the beginning.

It is certainly not as exciting as Settlers, Ticket to Ride or Puerto Rico, but still, if one is hungry for a quick nice game this is just perfect!

Steam

Last Saturday we had the opportunity to organize a game event, by collecting a bunch of nerds and paying a board game.
This time we tried something new and the selected game was called Steam.
Trains and Germany and strategy. This is not the first time I see this combination in a board game.

The game mechanics were quite simple, after one round and a bit of concentration, it was possible to play quite smoothly, although, as we are tricky players, questions are often asked for testing the rules and the game-owner rules knowledge, of course.

Copyright Mattias Pettersson ©

We played the game following the newbie sets of game rules, and despite that, the game was quite exciting and it was not easy to predict who would win it (although, the player that was clearly leading won anyway).

The game is structured according to 7-8 rounds. During each turn a player needs to select an ability for that turn (for example, he will be the first player during next turn), then it will be time to build a railroad path, move the goods over the railroad, collect the money or get another loan.
What is quite fascinating is that there is a small economic system connected to the execution of each step. Usually, in a way or in another, one gets granted a certain amount of money. Here, instead, one has to take the risk of getting a loan and balance it up.

I am not surprised that there are several variants of the game (and the game itself is a variation of another game, Age of Steams, it seems) since the platform is quite simple and of course, the setting can variate from Germany to wherever.

I am looking forward to test the game with the advance rule set. Maybe instead of letting someone else win, I will show off my strategical skills? :-)

Citadels

I must say the expectations I had on this game were not met whatsoever.
I thought it would have been a strange card game, with no big depth.
Instead, it turned out to be a quite interesting strategy game, not trivial at all and unexpected outcome.
Yes, if for good part of the game it seems the winner will be one, then at the end, with some good maneuver it could be somebody else.
It is a lot about guessing, intuition and also a bit of luck.

One can be a different character at each turn (a bit like in Puerto Rico), each character giving a special ability that can help out performing the action of the turn. The aim is to build eight districts: that will conclude the game, but the player with the highest amount of points will of course win.

I found the game quite well balanced and simple to learn. Not that fast, after all, since the strongest player changes quite often and the others try to compromise his actions.
A great game to play if one doesn't have too much time to dig into a booklet of rules, but still want to use the brain (or what is left of it ;D) and keep the mind well awake!

War of the Ring

Tolkien's fan? Finally a board game that is not heavily influenced by the movies :-)
After a bit disappointing Lord of the Rings Risk, we have tried this game, which, in its collector edition, is just majestic.

When Mattias P described the game and said that the box was in wood and the game 8kg heavy, I needed to see it to believe it!
He then came and took out the game and we were all astonished and exclaimed "woow" in unison.

We didn't fully play the game, we started a bit slow digging into some rules details, but the first taste was quite nice. The battle between evil and good is not as trivial and one requires a good strategy to survive.
Of course, good part of fascination of the game is due to the hand painted figures and the reminiscences from the books (not the movies!!!), but it was quite fun as well to roll the dice, and use the cards for performing new actions.

I look forward to actually see Galadriel in game, considering her funny expression!

Mansion of madness

Last friday, we had the opportunity to play a new game, which by casualties (or not really) is set yet again in the world of Call of Cthulhu. It seems that the big squid is actually on to us and I haven't even read a single Lovecraft book. Maybe I should abandon the Silmarillion passion for the Necronomicon?

The ratings of Mansion of Madness are pretty high and it is quite understandable why (considering also the comparison with Arkham Horror). There is a good atmosphere, there is a definite less amount of rules, exceptions, cards and tokens and there is a continuity between the two games (at least, in the characters one can choose).

It is quite intriguing with puzzles to be solved and a mistery and it is nice that the "evilness" is dictacted by a keeper, some sort of evil overlord a la Descent to Hell.
At least, also the evil forces can do mistakes :-)

In comparison still with Arkham Horror, the game is less mechanic, however the collaborative part is not really pushed as in Arkham Horror, where when things start to go bad, everyone is panicking and finally start to talk to each other.

Here, time is also quite crucial and we have to admit, we were quite lucky in defeating the evil keeper and his horrible shaggoth that appeared at the altar thanks to two of my teeth sacrificed for the mega squid!!!

I surely would like to play it again, also I believe, there is an infinite amount of scenarios possible and that is going to be quite funny!

Cthulhu is calling!

We are not happy to play a game against a big squid and some other fancy monster just on a board game, we want also to do a role playing game about it.
Well, we have got involved into a group of people that have (impressively semi professionally!) played such RPG for some years now.
We have met just once but that was a good occasion to get an idea of the atmosphere, rules and mechanics of the games and also for starting to give some sort of personality to our characters.
We play a version based on the5th edition of the RPG:

Then the problem is of course, what kind of character one must have. And since sparkling silverish elves are not in the setting, I was in trouble more than ever.
I don't know how it started, but it turned out that I have created a character, whose name is Jennifer Lopez (!) who is mainly a revolutionary, who has though studied some chemistry there and then. We are in 1920s and the Mexican revolution happened during 1910s.
Coming from Mexico, suspicious and quite pretty and smart (and rich), Jennifer lacks though any sort of feminine touch to her personality, but it is quite clever and always trying to make the most out of a situation.

Maybe she would look like this?
Let's see how she will turn out to be...!

The Hole in One

Ok, I must admit that the title of this post might be misleading to the most malicious minds.
However, it is completely innocent and it is simply the name of a board game that we got as present some dinner ago. Board game that was published 1987.

The game mechanics are actually quite simple and they are resembling as much as possible real golf rules. All the clubs, except the putter, are dice, and the game is simply about luck. Roll and choose the path, choose the right club, roll and see where the ball goes!

Not the most incredible game on the planet, but funny enough if one is crazy about golf and doesn't want to use that much brain :) (which is not connected of course, to the golf matter at all ;D)

A mixed post

I have so many things I would like to blog about, but for the moment I will limit myself to two.

First of all, I have retouched once more the blog graphics. This time I have corrected a tiny "misspell" in the header image, adding the right Swedish vowel. Secondly, since I got nicely pointed out that reading all the blab that I write with the previous color font could make a person sea-sick, I have changed it to a darker brown. I hope it has improved! Feedback is always welcome, good as bad!
Finally, I have improvised and this time, without the help of a tutorial, I have fixed the sidebar and added the same separator as between the post. So now the blog looks more coherent in itself. Fancy!
I still have the Chrome transparency issue on Ubuntu, but if some other geek wants to help me out with that I will be happy. I have sent a bug report to Chrome, but so far, they have just ignored it.
I think I would like also to have the pictures I post in some nice way. Fix the transparency of them and maybe a bit the border. But I am not sure I will do it also for the pictures of the previous posts.

Secondly. Let's change topic fully and talk about a game that we have been played about one week ago.
Arkham Horror. I think the main horror is the rules and the amount of cards that one has to display over its table. We just have a small expansion, but if one is geek enough, probably you would need to play on the floor to have the perfect area to play on.
The game is based on the novels written by Lovecraft, set in Arkham, a town in ...somewhere in USA.
Some divine monsters and other kind of creepiness are terrifying the town and the big Cthulhu one day, might decide to wake up and destroy everything.

So, the game is about being collaborating together in order to avoid that one of the Ancient Ones will wake up, by entering dimensional gates, exploring the other world, closing and sealing the gates and solving some other entertaining task, like killing various types of monsters.
All together, the game is pretty funny, but playing it the first time can be really a killer. Many cards, many rules, a lot of explanation that can be a good resolution if one suffers of insomnia, and so on, however, it is exciting to try to beat time (and the game itself) attempting to avoid all the catastrophes that instead the game is placing just in front of our heroes....

If you are an Arkham Horror freak, I really recommend to check this funny site:Indie Squid Kid. Hilarious against Carcassonne :-)

Puerto Rico

The other day we have had the occasion to play again one of our favorite board games. It is called Puerto Rico.

The one that finds the most efficient strategy wins. Well, there can be several strategies, the problem is that others might obstacle you and the game itself, having a limited amount of resources, doesn't allow to fulfill a static strategy.

The game is settle in Central America, just after it has been discovered by Cristoforo Colombo, in the 16th century. One has to produce resources that are typically for that area (corn, indigo, sugar, tobacco or coffee) thanks to the colonists and ship the products back to Europe. All of this generates money, which will allow to have buildings that will facilitate one of the phases, and will finally help to collect the points that will judge the winner of the game.

Nothing is said until the very end. It is possible to still win even though maybe the production is not as vary or intense as one of the other players.

Hope to play it again soon and win, this time :-) I have never managed yet!

Solomon Kane

It will be soon time to play a role playing game with a bunch of friends. We usually play with them in a fantasy setting, that I maybe will describe another time...
Anyway, with about the same group of people we are going to start also a game in another setting.

The world of Solomon Kane. Or better, the Savage World of Solomon Kane.
For the moment, we should have been working in preparing the characters.
So, I read some of the setting material that was sent and thought of what character I wanted to be.
I usually play, in a standard fantasy setting, elves druids (even though my first "powerful" RPG character was a strange evil cleric troll - with a past as a gnoll and born as something else that I do not remember - who lived in the worlds of the MUD Tempora Sanguinis 2 at least 10 years ago).
And here, of course, there are nor elves, neither druids.
By reading the setting, I thought that an inquisitor would have been fun. A female one. At the end, I am an inquiring person anyway, so it can't be that hard.
I thought though that it would be nice to try to make something strange for the setting, and that could get inspired by my usual characters.
So, Karura-o, with Garuda (taken directly from the manga RG Veda) will be an humble japanese herbalist. I believe it will be quite challenging to make her live in this world where women are usually not that positively appreciated, magic gets persecuted and let's not speak about foreigners.
We will see how the game will develop and how Karura-o will survive it :)

Ronan & Pico

It is quite funny to see that in some games Pico has been chosen as character ;-) (Pico is the little animal on the shoulder of Ronan)

Yesterday, we were at Christian&Marina and we played some "Descent: Journey into Dark". It is a board game that has a fantasy setting and a quite advanced board. One of the players (generally Christian!) would be the evil Overload that decides that will set up the game and make possible for our heroes to have different encounters.
We have been playing before, so we have been sticking to the characters from the previous quest (that we won!) and I have Ronan and Pico. So far, this campaign hasn't turned out to be easy: yesterday, we barely managed to survive (actually, Marina died once already) and we are hunted by some Manticore and Sorcerer and some other creature I don't remember the name.

We haven't finished the session (it is a quite time taking game) and we haven't decided on when to continue trying to survive in this epic world! But I hope we will manage ;-)