Last week has been quite quiet in boardgaming terms. One Battleship Express. One Innovation. One Power Grid with Benelux expansion. I had good memories about Power Grid but, while playing it, suddenly remembered why this game is not high in my personal TOP. I like games where there is tension until the last move - but with Power Grid it's usually clear earlier already, about who is going to win. If somebody manages to get the power plants in total of 17 or higher, he's also the winner and last round(s) change little - so basically the game is for me just picking the correct power plants from the auction. I don't blame the game like it's broken or something - it's just not for me.

The good news is, that I received the demo-proto-beta copies of my next game, Roundhouse Kick, with close-to-final artwork, for final playtesting. At least yesterday, with friends, everybody was quite happy. Yes, I know that with friends testing you have to alter the feedback Good=OK, OK=Bad, Excellent-can-we-make-babies-together=Good but the feedback was great even with those standards :) Let's see how it goes now, more tests ahead. If anybody is interested, final artwork/rules/etc will be available in 2d6.ee web when finalized, more unofficial updates and latest information can be found from publisher's Facebook page.

Resistance is "game of the month" in store, so it was a good opportunity to try it out, naturally. I was a bit afraid at the beginning about the similarity with Werewolf - as when people start to call players for this game it's clear signal for me to leave and go home - but Resistance was surprisingly good. With 5 players it was still a meh, but with 8 pretty good experience. Only downside for me is that the gameplay seems to be a bit in resistance's favour - if you manage to select no spys to your first mission it helps a lot - but this guess is based on only 5 plays. So it's just a gut feeling.

Played also 1817 during weekend. Ca 12 hours, real slugfest, lots of mistakes - as out of 6 players I was the only one familiar with rules but had no time/concentration to track all the activities.

Campaign Manager 2008 is quite nice fast-paced game with theme similar to 1960: The Making of the President. Compared to 1960 it's played faster, some randomness is included and the rules are really-really simple. You take one card (up to the limit of 5 cards) or you play one card. As a result, I like it more than 1960, and a lot more than Twilight Struggle.

Just by chance I happened to be in my store yesterday when friend of mine stepped in to collect a game he had ordered. And just by chance he thought that we might try it while unwrapping from shrink. While he was reading the rules I was browsing the cards and somehow they were a bit familiar to me. I was quite positive I hadn't seen this game before but nevertheless... that awkward feeling I had played this mechanic some time earlier somewehere. But where? And how did it happen?

Suddenly I remembered. It was what - 3 years ago? - when I volunteered in BGG to test one simple cardgame mechanics. I printed it out, played in our game group, analyzed and sent some feedback. And forgot about it. Until some months ago I found the test copy and even wondered about what had became of this game. I checked now the game rules - and hooray! - I'm even listed as one of the playtesters! :)

So, everybody - buy and play Libertalia - it's actually really good game with simple rules. The kind I like. And thanks to it, I'm now also a credited playtester :)

Get Bit! I really don't understand it. Shark, eating swimming robots. I suspect it should be humorous. Meh.

Ebola Monkey Hunt. They key is to get the Monkey #3 - getting all the rest is piece of cake. Pure roll-and-move with cheap-o components... but at least there is some potential hidden in theme. You just have to rewrite the mechanics, option cards, monkey cards, board, graphics etc etc :)

Age of Mythology - with 2 it's ok, with 3 players a bit below the par. During battle there is practically nothing to do for third player. Also, as it was pointed out, there is too much different plastic (units) included - as there is not enough time to get them all for initiating some combos. But perhaps that's the intention - if you want the variety in units, you just concentrate into gather-recruit from the beginning of game. What I like in this game is the VP allocation but there could've been more cards (i.e. more variety) to choose from.

And it seems the 60+ readers was a FeedBurner glitch and we're back in steady 7. I suspect I know you all on personal level... so why do I keep writing in English? :-D