Winning Eleven

I’ve been playing WYPS recently. It’s a new abstract game that combines word game with a connection game. It’s like The Game of Y, except the pieces have letters on them and must form words. The goal is the same: connect all three sides of the triangular board with a chain of your pieces.

While in Y you can only place one piece per turn, in WYPS you can play several — as long as they create a valid word. You can use pieces already on board, your own or your opponent’s, but must place at least one new letter. If you use an opponent’s letter, you can flip the tile to show your colour (if you use several,… Read More…

We’ve been moving and I’ve been otherwise busy, so I’ve had to skip each board game club meeting in November. Now I was finally able to make it and we got to play the game that’s been right on top of my “want to play” list.

Age of Steam — The Zombie Apocalypse. Even the name is amazing. I mean, the dead are raising from the graves, but who cares? There’s profit to be made on the railways. After all, people still need to travel from A to B, and preferably quickly, so they’re willing to pay premium — especially if you have armed guys on the train ready to blast the zombies to tiny bits.

The base… Read More…

This week’s game session started with Toledo, as I had just received a review copy of the game (it’s been published in Finnish by Lautapelit.fi). This Martin Wallace game is about the steel and swords of Toledo: players must collect materials, make swords and present them to the emperor.

There’s a road, which the players will cover with tiles that provide steel, jewels, sword-making and fencing lessons. Each player has five pawns moving on the road. You move by playing movement cards that make you go 1-6 steps, and you can only play one kind of card each turn: just ones, twos, threes and so on.

Once you step on a tile — it seems players spend the… Read More…

I asked for a review copy of Fits, but Amo provided me with a copy of Miksi juuri Mäntsälä…? instead. Well, that’s an interesting game, too. It’s the Finnish version of Ausgerechnet Buxtehude.

These games owe their existence to Anno Domini. In Anno Domini, players must put events in correct chronological order. These games add another dimension: cities and locations must be put in correct geographical order. There’s a starting city and the rest will be played on the north-south or east-west axis related to that city.

So, let’s say you start with Tampere. I then get a city, and must place it north, south, east or west of Tampere. If someone thinks I’ve made a mistake, they… Read More…

Race for the Galaxy is one of the hot games right now. The fans — Brian Bankler, for example, his Tao of Gaming is a must read — are babbling about it a lot, and no wonder, as it really is an excellent game. I once said an ideal game would be a quick card-driven development game with a science fiction setting. Race for the Galaxy is all this.

Well, the theme of the game could be just about anything, as the cards and their functions don’t really connect. I don’t mind, but if you’re looking for a strong theme, this isn’t your game. At least the card art is quite neat and captures the generic science fiction… Read More…