Author: Mikko

  • Best years of games, updated

    Best years of games, updated

    Mikko updated his “best years of games” geeklist. The top spots remain unchanged with significant years being 2015 and 2016. Changes in methodology significantly impacted the ranks, with 2017 leaping forward.

  • Railroads in the UK: 1829 Mainline

    Railroads in the UK: 1829 Mainline

    A decade after buying 1829 Mainline to support its creator, I played the game. It offers unique features in the 18xx genre, like an open tile selection from the start and trains that don’t rust. The game concluded with close final scores and a victory for me!

  • Gaming Year 2023

    Gaming Year 2023

    A review of my gaming year 2023: the best, the worst, the long-standing favourites and the missing games.

  • Forest Shuffle and new games

    Forest Shuffle and new games

    The post provides reviews of multiple games. I enjoy Forest Shuffle, particularly when played with two players, and find All Roads to be a compact, minimalist game with cooperative elements. The urban tactical combat game Invasion: Free State is also noted. Other games mentioned include The Quest for El Dorado: Dragons, Treasures & Mysteries, One…

  • Horseless Carriage and more

    Horseless Carriage and more

    Horseless Carriage is Splotter’s latest game tackling the early automobile business where players try to fulfill customer needs and manipulate market trends. Other games mentioned include Brass: Birmingham, a fine game; Spots, a quick, dog-themed game; and Cascadia, the Spiel des Jahres award-winning, tile-laying game ranked well on BoardGameGeek and comparable to another game, Akropolis.

  • Forest Shuffle and more

    Forest Shuffle and more

    I write about my experiences playing three different board games – Forest Shuffle, Fit to Print, and Moon. I had mixed feelings about Forest Shuffle’s balance and gameplay but plan to explore it further. I found Fit to Print, a tile-laying, real-time game about creating newspaper layouts, exciting and enjoyable. However, I remain indifferent to…

  • SpellBook

    SpellBook

    SpellBook by Phil Walker-Harding and Space Cowboys. I received a review copy from Asmodee Nordics. Elevator pitch: SpellBook is a race of collecting magical resources, using them to unlock spells and then using those spells to unlock more spells. What’s in the box? There’s a bunch of spell cards and a familiar board for each…

  • Top 100 list, the 2023 edition

    I did another edition of my Top 100 list. This was the first list with the new BGG GeekList sorting system, where I can assign a rank for each item and have BGG rank them in descending order. That’s very nice for these top 100 lists. The number of comments the list received has been…

  • Xiangqi, Shogi, Riichi and Brass: Birmingham

    Here are some random notes on games I’ve played recently. Xiangqi and Shogi. Thanks to a book project, I’ve returned to Chinese and Japanese chess. I tried both about 15 years ago, but those were just single attempts. Now I’ve delved slightly deeper, thanks to a son who is keen to explore these games with…

  • Earth and Space Base

    I’m usually not interested in new games, but apparently, I can be persuaded. Something in Earth attracted me; I’m not sure what it was. I checked the rule book, which seemed complicated at first sight, and then went and learnt the game. It’s not that tricky, really. It’s a game of many cards, tableau building…