On Tuesday 29th November we had a board games evening at our place.

Cannes

Ukko & Sari playing Cannes. Eve said it started slowly, but became fun once they got familiar with the rules.

Vinci

Michael et al playing Vinci. The game took 3 hours.

Finstere Flure

Ukko makes his move in Finstere Flure. This game is one of our favourites, and always goes down well. Some time we should play with the advanced counters: teleporters etc.

Another game we played was Monkeys on the Moon. It was quite fun, though the theme wasn’t very strong. I’d play it again, but I wouldn’t suggest it myself.

Last weekend I attended Helcon III , a board games event in Helsinki.

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Helcon

We were playing in Asukastalo Ankkuri , a youth centre in the Herttoniemi district of Helsinki. The facilities were ideal, with plenty of room for the 40 or so board game players who attended from all over Finland.

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Elfenland

I finally got a chance to play Elfenland , which I bought when I first got interested in board games. I’ve only ever played it two-player with Eve, but with five players it was a lot more fun. Other games I played were:

• Geschenkt!, a simple but fun abstract card game
• Spank the Monkey
• Carcassonne, a classic tile-laying board game
• Einfach Genial, Knizia’s new abstract board game, which was very good
• St. Petersburg
• Pyramiden des Jaguar, a rather asbtract two-player game I didn’t enjoy very much
• Niagara, a very enjoyable board game of trying to collect jewels by canoe without being washed over the waterfall
• Lost Valley, a fairly nice exploration game

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Table full of board games

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Shelf full of board games

Helcon is a very friendly event – people bring their own games and leave them on the shelves and tables at the sides for others to freely borrow and play. Most games are informal – when people arrive or finish a game, they start wandering around and choosing the next game to play. Once some have agreed on a game, they look around for other free people to join them, so it’s easy to join a new game. I played with lots of different people – if only I could remember their names!

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Carcassonne winner

As well as the informal playing, a few tournaments were run, including Carcassonne and a tournament of randomly-selected two-player games. Luckily for me the Carcassonne tournament was played in a light and friendly spirit, and somehow I ended up winning!

Helcon was great fun – if you’re interested in board games, I can strongly recommend attending next year’s. I’ll be there!

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Board games evening in our living room

Another board games evening, this time at our place. There were sixteen of us this time, so we split into three games, two on the big dining table and one around the coffee table. The games played this time were:

• Spank the Monkey, which lasted very long
• Citadels, an old favourite which we hadn’t played in a long time
• Karibik, one Scott bought in Essen
• The Gardens of Alhambra, again from Essen
• Funkenschlag, this lasted over 2 hours!
• Geschenkt ist noch zu teuer”, a short game with a long name
• Da Vinci Code, another short game
• Der Ausreisser, “Race Leader”, another short game

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Spank the monkey

Stu, Michael, Eve & Markus playing Spank the Monkey. This game is often over very quickly, but this time it just went on and on. Then I dynamited the missile, returning the game to the start, and Michael won very quickly.

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Karibik

Anne, Séverine, Mari & Markku playing Karibik. A rather pretty game. Was it any good?

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Funkenschlag (Power Grid)

Scott, Iris & Michael playing Funkenschlag. This was the game that lasted over two hours…