So... back in business. Visiting Essen (fourth time there, first year as publisher) and launch of my own game Making Profit - there was just not enough time to update this blog. But let's continue then, aye? I'm not going to list here all the plays since last update - there wouldn't be any point in doing this - I'd just list some more interesting games/sessions instead.

So. From where do we start? Perhaps Robinson Crusoe: Adventure on the Cursed Island. Despite of rules being quite messy and sometimes hard to understand (8 pages of rules questions in BGG) the gameplay itself is quite enjoyable. We managed to win the first scenario but even then there were some crucial moments where all our preparations were starting to fall apart. Have played it only once so far, with 4 players, but I'm really curious about how it would be with 2 players or even solo.

Android: Netrunner was played during Lautapelaamaan convention in Helsinki, Finland. I don't know why but until then I thought that it's usual 2-4 player game - instead I discovered it's 1v1. Nevertheless the mechanics is interesting, theme is good (one side is protecting the servers and data, other side tries to hack them and steal the data) but as it was first game for both of us we were not quite prepared to the game logic, so attacker got easy access to servers and stole everything needed for winning.

And to keep the story short perhaps only one more comment. About 1817. I've played it now three times (twice during this year - this should be good number for such monster-18xx) and it keeps going better and better with every time. This time I decided to test the more passive-ish investment side and also running-selling only 2-share companies. As it appeared, there were both ups and downs with this approach - it was quite conservative and risk-avoiding but also not profitable enough. As we played with 8 players the certificate limit was very low, so president's double certificate had high influence. From other hand this game was first where I saw so much shorting shares - at the end 3 players were damaged as a result of their companies being shorted (one bankrupt, two on autoplay as passive investors). An excellent game with plenty of opportunities!