Played a couple of board games yesterday.
Nanuuk is an German game that I’ve had since it came out in 1998. I don’t think you can get it any more, which is a shame as it’s a fun little game. It’s a perfect information game of the sort I’m seldom very good at, but the theme of Eskimo hunters softens that analytical edge. It’s also pretty quick to play with a built in timer as the ice cracks after each move and you have fewer and fewer places you can go. After playing it I looked on BGG out of curiosity, and it suffers rather unfairly I think. Their ranking is rather dependent on hype, with better promoted games getting more votes and therefore better rankings. That’s Bayesian maths for you.
Anyway, it was in my pile of “play these to see if they’re worth keeping” and it is. A light, fun little filler game.
Lords of War is a relatively new game to me. I picked this and other decks for it up at the UK Game Expo and had a couple of games there (including one against the designer). I’ve played it since as well, and thought it was worth breaking out once more to see how we got on with the Orcs and Dwarfs . I’ve been playing with different forces to see how different they felt.
I won’t go on about this at length as I want to play it some more and with other people before I write up a proper review. My main impression so far though is that I feel like I’m missing something. It’s fast, pretty and portable which makes it a good bet for taking along on holiday or to gaming clubs. Easy to teach people too. I’m just struggling with the game play. Like I said, it feels like I’m missing something. I’ll be coming back to this.
Either way, a fun diversion, and we also had a chat about Eternal Battle, which is a long way from forgotten 🙂
Quirkworthy 
There is a very simple game called hey thats my fish, which looks to be similar to this.
From the BGG reviews, it sounds like similar concepts, executed differently (with fewer pieces.
I stumbled into Lords of War at Salute. A young lady at the booth took me through it, it played well and I purchased a copy. Initially I had that same “missing something” feeling. I realised what it was….dice rolling. This game has such a slick mechanic that it does not need dice. Credit to the designer/s who came up with it – it has the initial “element of luck” in the cards that you keep drawing, but apart from that it’s down to your own skill, intelligence and cunning. Being a war gamer and gamer in general, we all know how all the best planning can be thwarted by a bad roll – upsetting, unrewarding and potentially ruining a game. I would liken Lords of War as a cross between chess and summoner wars. If you rely on lucky dice rolls to win a game then Lords of War is definitely not the game for you. If you want to be mentally challenged, but find chess too dry with no artistic style, then I would recommend this.
Game on..
Richard