boardgames
aardvarchaeology | January 3, 2017Here are the nine boardgames that I played more than thrice during 2016. The year’s total was 87 different games.
Keltis (2008, travel version, very handy, and Cousin E loves its mathiness)
Sechs nimmt / Category 5 (1994)
Deception: Murder in Hong Kong (2014, like Clue + Werewolf) *
Heimlich & Co. (1984) *
Taluva (2006) *
Blokus (2000)
Carolus Magnus (2000) *
Qwirkle (2006)
Telestrations (2009) *
These are mostly short games that you can play repeatedly in one evening. Taluva and Carolus Magnus are a bit longer. A long game that I played thrice was Glory to Rome. All are highly…
aardvarchaeology | November 14, 2016This past weekend saw my seventh annual boardgaming retreat: 43 hours in good company at a small hotel (in Nynäshamn for the first time), all meals included. My buddy Oscar organises everything. This year we broke the attendance record, with 28 participants, mainly guys in our 30s and 40s. Before Sunday lunch I left early and went to the release event for Karin Bojs and Peter Sjölund's interesting new book on X-chromosome haplotypes, Swedish male-line descent and genealogy: Svenskarna och deras fäder, “The Swedes And Their Fathers”.
I played thirteen sessions of ten different games in…
aardvarchaeology | June 14, 2016There's a scifi convention in my home municipality near Stockholm this weekend: Fantastika 2016. I'm giving a talk on my Medieval castles project, and I'm also on a boardgame recommendations panel. Below is the list I'm bringing: it's a selection of my favourites with an emphasis on the period 2010-2016.
"BGG rank" refers to the Boardgame Geek web site, where lower is better. So the higher the number here, the less conventional the recommendation. To put the rankings in perspective, note that BGG covers tens of thousands of games.
Plato 3000: game design by Sheamus Parkes, art by Steven…
aardvarchaeology | May 9, 2016Spent two happy days at the LinCon 2016 gaming convention in Linköping. 1500 gaming geeks of all ages from newborn to dotage, and with a very good gender balance. The only age/gender demographic that was visibly missing was old women. But brown and black people were sadly almost entirely absent. My own main complaint though was that for the first time neither of my kids came along to the convention.
This year I didn't learn any new games, but I taught a couple and I took part (rather ineptly) in a little Blokus tournament. Here's what I played, all enjoyable games that I recommend.
Agricola…
aardvarchaeology | January 1, 2016Here are the ten boardgames I played the most during 2015. The year's total was 78 different boardgames.
Saboteur (2004) *
Istanbul (2014) *
Love Letter (2012) *
Manhattan (1994) *
6 nimmt / Category 5 (1994)
Elysium (2015) *
El Grande (1995) *
Magic: the Gathering (1993)
Province (2014) *
Boss Monster (2013) *
These are mostly short games that you can play repeatedly in one evening. Istanbul, Elysium, El Grande and Boss Monster are a bit longer. Another long game that I played a lot was Galaxy Trucker. All are highly recommended!
Dear Reader, what was your biggest boardgaming hit in 2015?…
aardvarchaeology | December 22, 2015
Most story boardgames don't let you do much tactically to influence the results or win. I've reported previously on what a game of Arkham Horror (2005) can be like. And I've played Betrayal At House On The Hill (2004) quite a lot. But the storiest of all story boardgames I've played is Tales Of The Arabian Nights (2009). Me and my friend Roland played it Sunday, which took us 22 rounds and about 4.5 hours.
Roland was Ali Baba and finally managed to win, which was no mean feat given that it's hard to get the damn game to end at all. You need 20 points to win. But we had 40 points each at the…
aardvarchaeology | November 16, 2015 Hans, Jan and Urban learning Istanbul.
This past weekend saw my sixth annual boardgaming retreat: 43 hours in good company at our usual small Nyköping hotel, all meals included. My buddy Oscar organises everything. There were a bit more than 20 of us this year after a few late cancellations, mainly guys in our 30s and 40s. After Sunday lunch I left early and drove to Norrköping where I gave a talk about my recent excavations to 50 keen members the Friends of the Town Museum association, just like after the 2010 retreat.
I played thirteen sessions of nine different games in Nyköping. To…
aardvarchaeology | January 1, 2015Here are the ten boardgames I played the most during 2014.
Sechs nimmt / Category 5 (1994, gets swift intense buy-in even from non-gamers) *
Innovation (2010)
Magic: the Gathering (1993) *
Plato 3000 (2012) *
Keltis (2008, travel version, very handy)
Glass Road (2013) *
Archaeology: the Card Game (2007) *
For Sale (1997)
Qwirkle (2006) *
Samurai (1998) *
These are mostly short games that you can play repeatedly in one evening. Only Glass Road, Qwirkle and Samurai are a bit longer. Another long game that I played a lot was Elfenland. All are highly recommended! Except Archaeology, a game of…
aardvarchaeology | December 30, 2013Here are the ten boardgames I played more than twice during 2013.
Keltis (2008, travel version, very handy) *
For Sale (1997)
7 Wonders (2010)
Cave Troll (2002) *
Galaxy Trucker (2007) *
King of Tokyo (2011) *
Kingdom Builder (2011) *
Telestrations (2009)
Fluxx (1997) *
Tikal (1999)*
These are mostly short games that you can play repeatedly in one evening. Only Galaxy Trucker, Tikal and maybe Kingdom Builder are longer. All are highly recommended! Except Fluxx, which is just weird. I played it under duress at the Blåhammaren mountain hiker's resort.
I played 74 different boardgames in 2013…
aardvarchaeology | May 12, 2013Junior and I went for two days to LinCon, the annual gaming convention in Linköping (est. 1984). There was a fine crowd of geeks, all ages and with a good gender balance, many in steampunk finery. I said to Junior, "Look at them closely, son. These are your people."
Here's what I played. All good games!
El Grande (1995). Power struggle in 15th century Spain. This is the only 1990s game currently on Boardgame Geek's top-20, and so I wasn't surprised to find that it was the best game I played. Highly recommended!
Hacienda (2005). There was a room dedicated to the games of Wolfgang Kramer, so…
aardvarchaeology | January 2, 2013Here are the ten boardgames I played the most over a year with about one gaming session a week.
Innovation (2010)
7 Wonders (2010)
For Sale (1997)
Glory to Rome (2005) *
Lost Cities (1999)
Verräter (1998) *
Pergamon (2011, reviewed here) *
Telestrations (2009) *
Last Night on Earth (2007) *
Wok Star (2010) *
These are mostly short games that you can play repeatedly in one evening. The longer games that we played more than twice were Last Night on Earth and Yggdrasil. I played 74 different boardgames in 2012. Looking back since mid-2008, the number is 171.
Stats courtesy of Boardgame Geek.…