juhana

This is a series of posts where I play 100 boardgames. Game: Brass: Lancashire Designer: Martin Wallace Year: 2007 Country: U.K. Publisher: Roxley I played Brass: Birmingham and Brass: Lancashire backwards in the sense that I started with Birmingham and played Lancashire only now. Brass: Lancashire was originally published as simply Brass in 2007, and Continue Reading

This is a series of posts where I play 100 boardgames. Game: Distilled Designer: Dave Beck Year: 2023 Country: U.S.A. Publisher: Paverson Games A game mechanic must function as part of the game’s overall system. It must be enjoyable and contribute to the play experience. It must connect to the theme and make sense within Continue Reading

This is a series of posts where I play 100 boardgames. Game: Le Havre Designer: Uwe Rosenberg Year: 2008 Country: Germany Publisher: Lookout Games Le Havre’s designer is Uwe Rosenberg, who’s last game I played was Caverna and who’s probably most famous for Agricola. The ur-worker placement game, Agricola has a very specific vibe where Continue Reading

This is a series of posts where I play 100 boardgames. Game: Kapital! Designer: Michel Pincon & Monique Pincon-Charlot Year: 2019 Country: France Publisher: Vastapaino Kapital! is a French game about modern life in a capitalist society dominated by entrenched class interests. In terms of game design, it’s rudimentary, with a simple racing game structure Continue Reading

This is a series of posts where I play 100 boardgames. Game: Puerto Rico Designer: Andreas Seyfarth Year: 2002 Country: Germany Publisher: Lautapelit.fi In Finland, there’s a boardgame called Afrikan tähti (Eng. The Star of Africa) which has a special place in our national boardgame discourse. It’s one of those games everyone has played as Continue Reading

This is a series of posts where I play 100 boardgames. Game: Wingspan Designer: Elizabeth Hargrave Year: 2019 Country: U.S.A. Publisher: Stonemaier Games In the last five years or so, it has felt like everyone I know is playing Wingspan, so it was high time for me to play it as well. It’s a fairly Continue Reading

This is a series of posts where I play 100 boardgames. Game: Caverna – The Cave Farmers Designer: Uwe Rosenberg Year: 2013 Country: Germany Publisher: Lookout Games Caverna is a great example of how the theme affects the gameplay experience. It’s essentially a reimplementation of Agricola, to the degree that the rulebook tells you which Continue Reading

This is a series of posts where I play 100 boardgames. Game: Harmonies Designer: Johan Benvenuto Year: 2024 Country: France Publisher: Libellud Based on the title, I assumed Harmonies had something to do with music but in fact it’s a game about building different types of animals harmonious habitats. It’s a pretty abstract game, somewhat Continue Reading

This is a series of posts where I play 100 boardgames. Game: Splendor Designer: Marc André Year: 2014 Country: France Publisher: Lautapelit.fi For my money, the most difficult type of game to design must be streamlined, elegant games based on a single mechanism. Azul is a wonderful example of these, and Splendor is another. In Continue Reading