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Miira Auroora
Finland
Vantaa
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Time does seem to fly. We're almost through half of the year 2012 and it feels like maybe three months has passed since Christmas. So what's up?
I've been trying to log all my plays, but I'm quite sure there are some I've forgotten. It seems Piece o' cake has made it to the table the most, but that doesn't surprise. You can play it anywhere and anytime. Next on the list was A Touch of Evil. We've had a lot of fun with that one and I'm sure it will see a lot more table time in the following 6 months.
One thing about the first half of 2012 is that we've been gaming a lot more with friends than with family. A thing that will surely change during summer but it's quite interesting. We usually make an effort to spend time with family, but I guess everybody has been busy. And well, my sister did get a border collie puppy so... 
One positive thing about gaming with friends, is that you get to play longer and more complex games. I do like light games, probably more than the average geek. Sometimes it's just fun to play longer games with a bit more mature company. My family usually won't play a game if it last more than an hour, maybe an hour and a half tops. They just don't usually have time for more.
There has been one negative about this year. We have lost contact to one of our gaming groups. It just seems the rest just stopped gaming suddenly. My fiancé's not that sad about it, since they were messy gamers. They ate chips while playing and there were many many times when someone would almost knock a soda glass over.
Me and my fiancé have been trying to have a day in a month just to ourselves, spending time in our favorite board game stores in Helsinki, maybe buying games and just having a good time together. I've loved those days and do hope they continue through out the rest of the year.
So, what am I hoping to see in the next 6 months?
I don't have a lot of free time this summer, but I do hope to keep having regular gamenights. I will take one week off from work. Yay! In July my fiancé has his birthday, and we hope that the weather is nice so that we can have our annual boardgame/BBQ day.
I'm also looking forward to the fall, since my birthday is in November. I've been planning a Halloween themed birthday party, with boardgames that go with the theme. I know, not very original idea, but it's something I would enjoy.
We're probably not going to any cons this year, but hey, you never know for sure...
So, has this year been a good one to you guys?
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Miira Auroora
Finland
Vantaa
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I really am a person with a huge dislike for surprises. Why? You ask. Well, not all surprises are good ones and sometimes you end up having to pretend that you like the surprise even though you are actually a bit uncomfortable with it.
That being said, I really liked what my fiancé bought as a surprise: the Call of Cthulhu: The Card Game. He made an order online to get her sister, whom I've talked about here a lot, a birthday present. To get to the free shipping limit, he bought us the CoC LCG.
We had talked about getting a LCG, but hadn't decided between Coc or Lotr. I love the lotr books and movies, I was sort of a Tolkien fan in my teens. The one thing I had against the Lotr LCG was that it was co-operative. Don't get me wrong, I LIKE co-ops, it's just that we have so many of those. And I like to kick my fiancé's butt! 
But, what's with all the Cthulhu themed games? Is it like a drug? Seems we have so many of those.
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Miira Auroora
Finland
Vantaa
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The Arkham Horror virginity, I mean. (I wrote about this shameful thing in my blog in February)
This was actually quite unexpected, but let me tell you how it happened.
Maybe a week ago I was browsing online this Finnish equivalent of ebay, and in the game section I happend to notice someone selling AH for a pretty low price. At first I thought it had to be in a bad shape for that price. I clicked on the item and noticed it was paired with a small AH expansion. And in good conditions too.
I started thinking that with that price(40€) I couldn't even get the base game here. So, we discussed the matter with my fiancé, and decided to bid for it. It took us only two days to get it, and then the reading started.
I had prepared myself to what was coming, but when I started reading the rules I was surprised. It wasn't that hard to understand, that I had thought it would be. The second time I read the rulebook I made some notes, 'cause the main thing is, there are so much to remember.
So, one evening this week we and my friend Hanna got together for some cthulhu banishing.
Unfortunately our time schedule went a bit wrong, so I knew from the beginning that we wouldn't have time to finish it. My fiancé had an really early morning the next day.
But, we managed to play the game with only one rules error( in the first two turns), I'd say thanks to my notes. Everybody felt that there was a lot to learn, but not impossible at all. I felt it had similarities with A Touch of Evil: The Supernatural Game , which we love, so maybe that's why it wasn't so hard. Well, we were still getting our butts kicked
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I really don't have anything else to write about. It's been quite quiet here lately. We didn't do our monthly game shopping spree last month, and I don't think we'll do it this month either. But that's good. We have plenty of games to play.
I think I'll concentrate to my project of storing solutions for components. I'm going to a arts & crafts store today to see if they have any good storing units. Something like plano boxes but maybe different. we'll see. I'm also thinking about doing a new insert for ATOE, because the original can hardly hold the components.
Oh, I did get some plastic-jewel-like hearts for AH as stamina tokens. Now, searching for brains. Mini pimping? 
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Miira Auroora
Finland
Vantaa
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Last week could easily be named the week of board game silence. Not a single game got played in our house last week. The main culprit for this: my sick fiancé. He spent his time sleeping and I spent mine making him soup and tea.
But, as I had a lot of time for myself when he was sleeping, I finally had time and enthusiasm to continue The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. Haven't played that in 4 months...
Playing that made me remember seeing this video about a board game that was inspired by video games or something. So I logged on to BGG and started looking and did find what I was looking for. It was Super Dungeon Explore. And now I have this huge craving to buy that game despite the fact that you have to assemble the miniatures and really, those need some paint. Even though I've never even once painted a miniature in my life.
I've been trying to look somewhere to buy that, and seems the only store in Finland that had it, don't have it anymore. There's always amazon... Gameslore has them too, and I think they ship internationally. I have no experience with that store, the only thing I now is that they are British. Anyone have experiences with them?(The store, not the Brits)
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Miira Auroora
Finland
Vantaa
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Okey, so I too was shocked to find out that BGG was down for maintenance. But, since I had lots of plans for Saturday, that didn't really bother me(liar liar pants on fire!).
On Saturday me and my fiancé went to Helsinki to spend some cash. On board games of course. We had reserved a couple of games beforehand just in case, but we also wanted to just look around the shelves to see if there's something else we might want. Of course there were plenty of games from our wishlist but we ended up getting the following:
*Ticket to Ride Map Collection: Volume 2 - India & Switzerland
Now we all the maps except Märklin. Yay! We actually played this on Sunday and my fiancé said that he didn't like the India map as much. Not sure if this was April fools' or not?
*Ninjato
This is so beautiful. And hopefully a fine game too. I had to get this after seeing a couple of video reviews. Seems like my kind of game.
*Undermining
A fun little space game with great components. My only gripe is with the orange UMV . The player board is definitely orange yet the pawn is yellow! Ugh. I hate yellow. I'm expecting this to be a great family game. We played a learning game and the rules were really easy. Now hoping to get a full 5-player game going.
*A Touch of Evil: Something Wicked
We love ATOE so this was a no-brainer. We also got A Touch of Evil: Hero Pack 1.
Games that were left behind:
*Eminent Domain
I didn't have the courage to pick this one up, because I dislike deck building games. This seems interesting though, so maybe someday.
*Conquest of Planet Earth: The Space Alien Game
We decided to get this next time after we make some more money
*Ascending Empires
Hasn't really been in our wishlist, but my fiancé always seems to be drawn to this box. Not sure if it's the space theme or the flicking. Might have to get this for him as a surprise someday.
So, now I have to somehow make space for these on the shelf. I actually dumped some books off my bookshelf to free some space for games, because the gameshelf just is too full.
We also got Thurn and Taxis from my mother-in-law who found it in a drift store for 2,80 euros. The box had seen better days but the cards were still wrapped. We played once, and to me it was a bit meh, but the other seemed to like it, so it stays.
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We also had a game night on Saturday. It didn't really go as planned because a couple of the guest came two hours late! It was great to see some friends who we don't get to see too often, but I had hoped to get more games on the table. Well, maybe next time.
On Sunday it was April Fools' Day but no one even tried to fool me. Kinda lame.
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Miira Auroora
Finland
Vantaa
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Last Saturday me and my fiancé got together with her sister. I wrote about her a while ago in my blog. She is mentally disabled so gaming with her is a different kind of experience.
She had asked as to play Ticket to Ride with her, which she had seen her parents play a few weeks ago. As I suspected, that one didn't go so well, but she had fun, and that's all that really matters. She needed a lot of help because for some reason she just didn't understand that she needed to match the cards colors to the routes she was building. But that's ok. We helped her and we pulled it through.
Another game that we played that evening was Carcassonne, which I was sure she would understand. And she did do quite well, actually. We opted to leave the farmers out of the game, and it was a wise choice. She seemed to like Carcassonne a lot, so we played a few games in a row. I'm thinking about getting her The Kids of Carcassonne as a birthday present this May, which I'm hoping she could even play with her friends who are also mentally disabled.
We were supposed to play Coloretto too, but ran out of time. She has played that before so we know it works with her. Last time I wrote about her, people gave me lots of great suggestions, so I have tons of games I'd like to try with her. So more on the subject coming later.
Now onto other affairs.
I'm waiting for a package to arrive with our newest acquisitions. We ordered Takenoko and Dungeon Run few days ago, but I'm not sure if we get them today. You see, I've been following the package online and the trackind ID says that it has been delivered to the wrong post office. Fortunately it's not that far away, but I'm still concerned. Last time something like this happend the store had given us the wrong tracking ID so the package we got was not our order at all. We'll see how this goes. I'm still hoping to get DR on the table today.
Another issue with these games is, where the hell to store them? I guess there's always room for one more game... I might have to take up some space from the Shelf of Shame, which is a shelf with all the stupid games like Trivial pursuit or Monopoly,( which are my fiancé's) that aren't allowed to get any contact with our great games.
Getting those two games to fit is going to be a small problem compared to the games we are going to buy this Saturday, when we go to our FLGS to spend some cash. I've been waiting for this weekend so much! I've done a shopping list of all the games we would like to get and I've made sure they aren't out of stock of any of the games on the list. I'm hoping to get at least Undermining and Ninjato. Possibly Eminent Domain, but I'm not sure about this one yet. If some of these aren't available for some reason, then we are considering Conquest of Planet Earth: The Space Alien Game. But for now they seem to have them all in stock.
We've also been invited to a game night hosted by my friend who actually isn't a gamer, but who might become one. 
I hope it goes well. None of the other guests are gamers, so we'll be bringing the games. I've informed them not to expect party games. Well, we might bring Dixit just in case...
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Miira Auroora
Finland
Vantaa
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For some reason I started remembering my childhood today. First things that came to mind were the not-so-lovely memories of my father's alcoholism and my parents nearly splitting up and my grandma passing away. But then I started remembering some really great memories about playing boardgames with my father. When he was sober.
I had a lot of boardgames as a child but most of them were that typical roll-and-move kinda crap. But when I was six or so, my father bought me a Chess set. With Moomins. Yeah, honestly. We played that all the time and I was so happy because it had Moomins. They were like the biggest thing to a 6 year old 20 years ago. Without them I'm not sure if I as a 6 year old would have been interested in chess. But, we played chess over and over again, and later when I became older we switched to regular pawns instead of the Moomin ones. This is such a dear memory to me, that to this day I refuse to play chess with anyone else than my father.
I think those years had a huge impact on me becoming a gamer. I'm always looking for a game that makes me feel as happy as my first chess set did. And I always try to give games as gifts so that other people might find our great hobby, too.
Most of my family thinks that me and my fiancé are crazy, now that our collection has passed the 100 mark(132 to precise,)but boardgames bring me joy that surpasses all the bad times and bad memories. I say it's all worth it.
Wed Mar 14, 2012 10:27 am
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Miira Auroora
Finland
Vantaa
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I don't have to work today so here I am babbling to myself in the Geek. Made myself a cup of tea and logged on to bgg to spend some time while I'm waiting for my fiancé to come home.
We've been playing Ticket to Ride with my in-laws quite a lot lately. I'm sure most of you do that too with your in-laws. This really isn't uncommon to us, since we play with them all the time. It's just that TTR is the first game that seems to have addicted them. Usually they play anything just to humor us. We've been having so much fun, that my mother-in-law has started to go buy games on her own. And not just trivia games, that she used to buy... Last week she bought Modern Art.
Me and my fiancé have been watching more tv(mainly Alias and the Big bang theory on DVD) than playing games this week, but luckily we have a game night planned on Saturday at my friend Hanna's place. I would really like to play Fortune and Glory: The Cliffhanger Game but I'm not sure if the crowd there would like that. I even made a playlist of Indiana Jones soundtracks to accompany the game.
Today would have been a great day to play A Touch of Evil: The Supernatural Game again with my brother-in-law since we're going to celebrate my sisters birthday at their place. Except that my other sister, the one who really really hates boardgames, is also coming. She'll just make snide comments about how stupid boardgames are and then I'll get upset because she is so short-sighted. She is the only one in my family who doesn't enjoy gaming. She's more in to wine and gossip.
Well, that's it folks! Maybe I'll write more after tomorrows game night and we'll see if F&G hits the table or not. Hope you guys have a great weekend filled with boardgames.
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Miira Auroora
Finland
Vantaa
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As I mentioned before, we ordered Fortune and Glory: The Cliffhanger Game online 'cause we were too lazy to carry it around town. It took only 2 days to get here. Yay!
Of course I had to open it right away, and left my fiancé to cook by himself. Needless to say, I'm the geeky one. Later that night we gave it a spin with the basic rules. And after that it has seen the floor(yes, it takes so much space that we prefer to play it on the floor) a few times since. And the advanced rules aren't that complicated once you know the basic stuff. Haven't played the co-op mode yet, so no comments on that.
We really like F&G. It's just fun. Yes, there isn't so much strategy going on but with this game, I don't mind. It scratches another kind of itch for me. I plan to do a playlist with Indiana Jones soundtracks and other adventure movie soundtracks to listen to while we play, since I really don't care for the one that comes with the game. I'm actually doing the same thing with A Touch of Evil: The Supernatural Game, with horror movie music. A nice little side project for me.
As you can probably guess, we have this little Flying frog productions crush going on
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We had planned this weekend to go visit my in-laws with Ticket to Ride with us. My fiancé's father really likes to play TTR. I guess it's his favorite game. But we didn't know that my sister-in-law(who is mentally disabled) would also be there. Ticket to ride is a bit too complex for her.
We decided to play TTR with her as a general advisor for everyone. And it was fun. She especially liked the locomotive cards, and her advice always was to take one, if possible
Luckily, we had packed Piece o' Cake with us so she could join us. With some help with the cutting, she did fine. And she thought it was fun to play a cake game while drinking coffee She even asked if we could take that game with us the next time we see her. I was afraid she would find it stressful to choose wich piece to take. I'm glad she really enjoyed it.
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Today I have planned to go see my nieces to teach them to play Evo. They love Small World and when I told them that Evo was from the same designer, they really got interested. I wish their English was a bit better so we could play F&G. Well, maybe in a few years...
Wed Feb 29, 2012 10:41 am
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Miira Auroora
Finland
Vantaa
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Okey, now I've said it. I'm an Arkham Horror virgin
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And because I had hard time sleeping last night(because of a stupid loud neighbor) I started thinking about why I haven't played AH. You see, I am sometimes a bit embarrased about this.
Of course there are multiple reasons. For starters, none of my gaming friends play it. I think most of them prefer something less time consuming. I do know one friend of a friend who according to Facebook loves AH, but I have a feeling she doesn't play it right. She says their sessions only last about 1,5 hours. Doesn't everyone else say it lasts at least 4 hours? Or maybe she and her friends are just THAT good at it. How could I know.
There's always my fiancé who does play almost anything I desire.(And that wasn't supposed to sound so dirty...) But he does have one minor flaw. He sucks at listening to rules explanation and he refuses to read them by himself. Usually he starts to yawn when I read the rules and when we start he doesn't have a clue what he should do.
Now, I've gotten the impression that the rulebook of AH is a huge son-of-a-b.... So I'm a little concerned my fiancé would lose his sanity before the game even starts.
But then again, he loves Elder Sign. And we own Mansions of Madness, just haven't gotten around to explain the rules to him. That's going to take a while... But the point is, that I think the theme might be appealing to him. We both do love games with somewhat supernatural theme.
And then there's the co-op aspect. So far, my fiancé has liked every co-op game we have played. But is AH too much for him?
I just don't know what to do here. If I wanted to play AH I presumably would have to buy it because none of my friends have it. And then if we end up not liking it, I'll just have to let it gather dust on the shelf or sell it to someone. I guess I'll just go look at some video reviews and try to figure out this thing. Is it time or not?
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