Once a year me and my friends gather in a sleepy little village called Hassela in Sweden for a 4 day board gaming weekend. It started back in the summer of 2016 but quickly turned into a religiously observed yearly event. 4 days of non-stop eating, drinking and most importantly gaming.

This years event proved to be even more significant than any I can recall as it was really the first time things felt “normal” since the pandemic started. The Pandemic has been a literal plague on our ability to get together socialize and play games and even though my gaming buddies and I have had a game night here and their, it was always filled with this sort of tension and subtle fear of becoming infected and getting sick. Now with everyone vaccinated and at least a calm in the storm as temporary as it may be, I think it was the first time I spent any time with my friends where I never gave a moments thought to the possibility of getting sick. It was a wonderful feeling and an amazing weekend.

At this years event while their were quite a few new games that were introduced, we also played quite a few games I would consider “classics” at this point. It was definitely a very Euro-Gamy weekend, though I don’t think this was some sort of conscious or intentional thing, but rather a testament to some really great releases in the last couple of years and my groups general fondness for worker placement games specifically.

I present to you this years games in the order they were played, enjoy the list!

Tapestry (2019) by Stonemaier Games
Designer: Jamey Stegmaier

Without question it was unanimously agreed that this was a smash hit with us this weekend, in fact we ended up playing it a second time, something we rarely do on these big board gaming weekends simply because there are so many games people bring to the event. Tapestry however was so good that playing it once was simply not enough.

Tapestry is a sort of resource management and civilization building game where players effectively try to expand their civilization through successfully exploring, conquering and inventing technologies in a very “Euro Way”. Its actually a bit difficult to describe but it suffices to say the game is oddly thematic and has this very healthy presentation that gets you into the spirit of telling a story about your developing civilization while remaining wildly abstract and extremely strategic. This is a game where thinking and planning really pay off.

Tapestry has a lot of really unique and interesting mechanics, but really I think what makes it such a great game is the simplicity of what you do on your turn and the depth to which those simple decisions impact the outcome of the game. All you do on each of your turns in this game is choose to move up on one of 4 tracks (Technology, Exploration, Science and Military). This comes with a resource cost, but each step along these tracks has a unique benefit that helps to expand your civilization. Because each player draws a random civilization or perhaps better to say “culture type” at the start of the game, their interaction with other civilization results in each player adapting a very unique strategy/approach in each game. Which again is hard to describe, its something you almost have to experience to understand. You can kind of think of it like playing chess, but the layout, starting positions and types of pieces you and your opponent get are different each game, which means that all of the strategies you tried in your last game are not going to work in this game, even though the general rule (move one piece on your turn) is the same. Each time you play Tapestry the game re-invents itself, presenting you with an entirely different way of seeing it.

It does not surprise me at all that this game has fallen under the radar as I find myself struggling to properly describe it and do it justice. On boardgamegeek this game is rated 235 which is shockingly low given BBG’s affinity for great Euro games and how good this particular one is. I have only played it twice so it would be hard to justify a full review, but my gut on this one is that it has immense replayability and depth, based on these two plays I would not hesitate to recommend it. It is a fantastic game.

Blood Rage (2015) by CMON
Designer: Eric Lang

Blood Rage remains the only game I have ever reviewed on this blog that got a perfect 5 out of 5 score and as it does every time I play it, it has proven that it deserves that score and all of the accolades that come with it. Blood Rage is just straight up amazing and though I would not exactly call it a “Euro” given it’s over commitment to presentation, theme and “take that” interaction, the entire game really does hinge on smart card drafting and well timed unit placement on the board. This may have the appearance of some sort of Ameri-Trash area control game, but there is very little luck in this game, the most skillfully executed strategy will win this game every time.

It’s a brutally hard game to win and certainly players benefit from experience and player knowledge of the cards, so it can be a bit tough to win on your first go against more experienced players which might actually be the only flaw I have ever seen in the game, but in my experience it’s always a very close game and all victories are hard fought and well earned.

I love this game, naturally with a 5 star score I highly recommend it and thanks to its long term success it has been in print since it was released and you can still buy it today. I do recommend getting the 5 player expansion if you can get it (that tends to be a bit harder to find) but it plays really well with 5. While I do like the Mystics of Midgard and Gods of Asgard expansions as they add some interesting added components they aren’t really necessary and might over complicate the game a bit for less experienced players.

Vampire Rivals (2021) by Renegade Game Studios
Designer: Dan Blanchett & Matt Hyra

My gaming group and I are huge Vampire: The Masquerade fans, in fact we have been actively playing the 5th edition RPG religiously for the last couple of years, so the Vampire theme has considerable meaning to us. We have also played all of the various Vampire games that have been released in the last few years including Heritage and Vendetta.

Vampire Rivals is a more traditional living card game, along the lines of Game of Thrones the card game and really this felt very much almost like a kind of “based on” LCG. A lot of the mechanics and concepts of Rivals were instantly familiar to me and conceptually it really felt like the game is driven by well established card game design principles.

I think my gaming group liked this game a lot more than I did, but this may have something to do with the fact that generally speaking collectable card games for me have to do something really unique to garner my interest. I have played dozens of CCG’s and LCG’s over the years and have quite a few on my shelf not to mention some of the digital variants I play. When I clear shelf space for a collectable card game, it’s going to have be something more than just the standard fair, which is not to say I didn’t like Rivals, it was fine, but it wasn’t like Star Wars: Destiny were after one play I was ready to whip out my credit card.

I’m sure we will play this one more in the future, but I have my doubts about it becoming a thing with us and truth be told I liked both Vampire Heritage and Vampire Vendetta much better then this one, so if we are talking Vampire based card games, I think their are much more interesting options than this one. I will however say that if you like Game of Thrones the Card Game and you also love the Vampire: The Masquerade theme, Rivals is going to be in your wheel house.

Bang The Dice Game (2013) by dV Giochi
Designer: Riccardo Pieruccini

Bang The Dice Game got introduced to the group a couple of years ago at the big board gaming weekend and it’s been a mandated filler for the event ever since. This is a quick, wildly erratic and mostly silly dice chucking and hidden identity game and while their might be some strategy to it in their somewhere, for our group its just an excuse to goof and have a laugh, fitting nicely in between drinks and dinner. It’s a great small group party game, hitting that 5 to 8 player sweet spot. I’m not sure if it replaces games like Coup or The Resistance for me, but chucking dice is always fun and the game requires very little explanation for it to click with even the most inexperienced non-gamer. Its as universal as Yahtzee but so much more fun.

Empires: Age of Discovery (2015) by Eagle-Gryphon Games
Designer: Glenn Drover

This stone cold classic is arguably Glenn Drovers Mona Lisa, though the man is responsible for a considerable amount of board gaming history including classics like Attack!, Conquest of The Empire, Railways Of The World and Sid Meier’s Civilization.

Age of Discovery to me however is an example of taking an awesome concept like Worker Placement and perfecting it. This is simply one of the best worker placement games ever made and it was during our big board gaming weekend what I would consider a main event game where we had a full seating of six players hunched over for several hours trying to figure who had the right to rule over the new world.

Age of Discovery is really a kind of race to the new world, it’s very much all about trying to squeeze the most out of the starting conditions and whatever benefits you can gather along the way. Turn order is huge in this game and its a constant fight to be first player so that you can land those key capital buildings, resources and specialized workers. Its one of those worker placement games where there is never an absence of tough decisions. The scoring rounds too are such a critical moment where suddenly everyone is simultaneously jocking for positions in the new world and the game goes from a very peaceful and humble management of your own resources to suddenly forcefully pushing everyone out of your way.

If it wasn’t for the fact that we played so many truly amazing games, I would call this game the highlight of the weekend, but alas there was a lot of great stuff that hit the table and I would be really hard pressed to pick my favorite. I don’t really know how well this game hits with the rest of the group, but for me personally, I love this game and I’m always excited to get it to the table, it has been and will forever remain on my must own list.

The Sheriff of Nottingham (2014) by CMON
Designer: Sergio Halaban & Andre Zatz

I have no idea if Sheriff of Nottingham is a good game or not, but I do know that it is a great time in a box. At no other time during the entire weekend did we laugh as much as we did during our play of this game. The lying, bribing, threatening and posturing of this game never fails to deliver sheer and utter silliness that has everyone in tear inducing laughter. Every time I play this game it results in some eternally quotable moments that we laugh about for years after.

If you are looking for some sort of strategy in a game like this however I think you will be disappointed, trying to play this game to win is just a silly endeavor, you just have to sort of accept and embrace the absurdity of the game, let lose and play it as it is intended, with a cocktail in your hand surrounded by friends.

I love Sherriff of Nottingham, but it’s not at all because I claim its a good game, to be honest I’m not even entirely sure we are playing it properly. It’s greatness comes from its ability to produce funny situations that has everyone in stiches and its precisely for this reason Sheriff of Nottingham makes an appearance in the big Hassela weekend almost every year.

Vampire Vendetta (2020) by Horrible Guild
Designer: Martin Mottet

Vampire Vendetta my gaming group discovered this year during the pandemic using Tabletop Simulator. While I find playing games online is typically a considerably lesser experience, I was pleasantly surprised by this one and one of the guys ended up picking up a real copy and bringing it to the big board gaming weekend this year.

For me Vampire Vendetta falls into the, if you love the theme, you will love the game – category of games, meaning that if you are not into Vampire The Masquerade RPG and you don’t know what a Brujah is or why vampires fight over control of cities like Chicago, this game probobly will not only confuse you but seem rather arbitrarily unbalanced. For those of us in the know however, Vendetta is a perfect execution of the Vampire The Masquerade theme, nailing that political struggle between the vampire clans that as fans we find so engrossing about the world of darkness. Yes, its just as unfair and often unbalanced as you would expect the clans to be as this game designer understood that in order to be the game Vendetta needs to be, aka, a true representation of the world of darkness, those in-equalities need to be built into the game and thankfully they are.

In Vendetta each player picks a clan and gets a limited deck of cards that represent the most classic elements of each clan. There are 4 sections of the city, one of which is the princes haven and each round players are vying for control over these sections of the city. This is done by committing action cards to the zone either face up (revealed) or face down (hidden). These aren’t full commitments because in vampire feinting an action, trying to get players to over commit and tricking them into terrible situations is what the game is all about.

Part psychology, part strategy and all horror, Vampire Vendetta just has it were it counts. Simple rules, great execution of theme, well paced, highly replayable and above all else the designer knows his audience, clearly this is a person who knows his world of darkness and this game is a love letter to it.

Definitely for Vampire: The Masquerade fans only, but if you love the world of darkness, you are going to love this board game version of it.

Coup (2012) by Indie Boards & Cards
Designer: Rikki Tahta

Coup may be the only game that has made the table at every single one of our Hassela board gaming weekends over the years and this year was no different. Easily one of my favorite fillers of all time, this hidden identity game relies almost entirely on the psychology of its players and most of the strategy of the game is about reading the other players and knowing when you can and can’t lie about what cards you are actually holding. Simple, fast and quite difficult to win, its among the best of the Ultimate Werewolf inspired hidden identity games.

Condottiere (1995) by Eurogames
Designer: Dominque Ehrhard & company.

Despite its 95 release making this a fairly old game, my group discovered it only in recent years but it has become an unquestionable established classic in our group. I have never met anyone who played it and didn’t like it, in fact I have bought it and given it away three times. Everyone who plays it feels the instant need to get their hands on it and its no surprise to me at all because the game is a perfect example of extremely streamlined game design.

This is a trick taking game with a area control element, but what really gives this particular card game an edge over the virtual sea of trick taking games out there is how the cards you draw are used over potentially several rounds. Because you don’t actually know how many rounds their will be with any given card set you draw you have to always think about the fight you are in now and its importance and what fights will come next. Often you are trying to get other players to commit to battles you have no intention of winning just so you can set yourself up for future victories, while other times you are just looking for opportunities to screw people or get a quick victory.

Easily one of the best trick taking games I have ever played and thankfully this game seems to always be in print. Another game on my must own list.

Tsuro (2004) by Calliope Games
Designer: Cathy Brigg & company

I’m not a huge abstract gamer, looking at my shelf I can count the amount of games I have in this genre on one hand minus a few fingers, but every once in a while a game comes along that I find irresistible (I’m looking at you THE DUKE).

Tsuro however was not one of those games and though I really didn’t see anything particularly wrong with it as it was clever, simple and quick, exactly what you want an abstract game to be, it’s not the kind of game that floats my boat. It’s not an issue with the game, but rather just my general gaming preferences, in fact, I would argue that if you like abstract games, this would probobly hit the spot just right. What little I know of the genre, this game seems to have that puzzle element I think abstract gamers will love. When we played it I’m not joking when I say the game took about 10 minutes to complete, it was a very quick game.

Are you dumber than a box of rocks (2016) by AMO Toys
Designer: Joe Herbert & Dave Herbert

A member of our gaming group has an affinity for pulling out odd ball games for us to try and while I find that all Trivia games are basically the same, this one in particular actually had some funny elements I think Trivia fans might enjoy. For one it was a multiple choice game, essentially all questions are answered with 0, 1 or 2. Which means that you effectively have a 1 in 3 chance of guessing right. This is a team game however and your opponent is a literal rock in a box, that has 3 sides with a 0, 1 or 2 written on it. The question is asked, the rock is shaken and your effectively competing against random chance. Surprisingly enough, it was a close game and while I will admit most of us were drinking and not exactly in top form, it was kind of funny to have almost been beaten by an actual box of rocks. Its a silly concept, but as far as trivia games go, this was actually kind of funny.

Dune Imperium (2020) by Dire Wolf
Designer: Paul Dennen

Dune Imperium was the only other game in the line up that was played twice and for the exact same reason Tapestry got a second go, this game is straight up amazing. In fact, while 2020 was an absolute shit year for gaming because of the pandemic, hence their was very little games played in general this year in our group, there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that Dune is the game of the year.

A combination worker placement game with a deck building/playing element, this is one of those games that has just that perfect tightness. Games are ALWAYS close, hard fought battles. The game is really well paced, wonderfully balanced, beautifully illustrated, based on an absolutely awesome theme and is just chalk full of replayability. Blood Rage currently stands as the only game to have ever gotten a perfect score from me on this blog, but if there is any game that I know of right now that has a shot at being added to that list, it is most certainly going to be Dune Imperium. You are going to have to look long and hard to find a flaw with this one, it may just be a perfect game.

Don’t bother thinking about it for another second, this is an auto-buy if there ever was one.

Stone Age (2018) by Zman
Designer: Bernd Brunnhofer

Worker placement games are what I call “highly reliable” strategy games, meaning that, they usually don’t have a luck element and if they do it’s very minimal. Stone Age flips that, by creating not only a considerable luck element based on dice rolls, but a push your luck element with how you position your workers. You often pick spots on the board you can’t afford, hoping to score the needed resources during the round, which means that the game has this sort of gambling element to it.

It’s hard to know where to place Stone Age in light of a world filled with amazing worker placement games, in particular given that the “highly reliable” strategy games are generally considered “better” because they remove luck and put control into the players hand making them games of skill. I may be alone in this but I find Stone Age kind of refreshing. To me games should have luck in them, in particular when the game has ways to circumvent the reliance on luck through good long term strategies.

Stone Age is certainly not going to blow anyone away, in fact, my early impressions of this game when I first tried it were kind of luke warm, but I have kids in the house who love to play board games and kids love rolling dice so Stone Age is popular with them. The result is that I have played this game more often than I probobly would have otherwise with my gaming group. I brought it along this year to the Hassela weekend as an alternative pick as my 4 player game in place of Dune, but by the time it was my turn to pick a game we had already played Dune twice so it made its way to the table. In light of Dune I think perhaps people were less impressed with it, but I think its a pretty fun game and its definitely more family friendly then games like Tapestry and Dune that can feel a bit heavy on the strategy end. Stone Age has very simple and easy to understand goals, quite perfect for kids or less experienced gamers.

Batman Flux (2015) by Looney Labs
Designer: Andrew Looney

Ok, I’m just going to say it, this game is stupid but I suppose a game designed by a guy named Mr. Looney, we should probobly not have expected much.

I know these flux games have a following and all, but to me this game was just complete nonsense. I won, I have no idea how or why, but I was just glad it ended quickly!

Gloom (2005) by Atlas Game
Designer: Keith Baker

Keith Baker of D&D fame takes a swipe at making a card game about people living tragic lives, then dying horrifically to score points. As silly as that sounds, this game was actually mildly entertaining.

It’s a bit gimicky with it’s see through cards that you layer one on top of the other and it’s rather morbid theme, but its a short enough game that the exercise doesn’t over stay its welcome and it was good for a couple of laughs. A simple and quick card game filler that might be good as a camping game or something to pull out with the kids. Nothing for my personal shelf, but given the card game we had played right before, I was mostly just happy we were not playing Batman Flux!

Conclusion

Another Hassela weekend for the history books and what a fantastic weekend it was. Lots of great games were played and a good time was had by all!

Now its time to pick my favorite game of the weekend and I have to admit I struggled with it for quite a while. Certainly established classics like Blood Rage are always contenders and my beloved Empire: Age of Discovery I’m never disappointed by was in the running briefly. In the end however it was a battle between Dune Imperium and Tapestry.

Strictly speaking I think Dune Imperium is a better game from a sort of generalist perspective. What I mean is that if it’s board game night and I’m pulling out a game no one has every played, I can get everyone playing Dune reasonably competitively on the first go in no time flat and no one will be confused about what to do or how to do it. Its a game that is easy to teach, easy to learn, its actually relatively fast and while it has plenty of nuances and potential strategies, its not going break anyone’s spirit and the result of the game is going to be tight. Whoever wins isn’t going to win by more than 1 or 2 points.

Tapestry on the other hand while the core rules are relatively simple, has a metric ton of iconography and requires considerable explanation to get people going while the depths of the strategy and nuanced ways the economy works is going to have players struggling to grasp exactly how to put together a competitive strategy. Even for a humble veteran like me it took a second game before I had even the faintness clue what I was doing and I was none the less lapped by the more experienced player. At the end of Tapestry a less experienced player might score as little as 100 points while a more experienced player can break 400. The margins of victory will require everyone to have a good grasp of the game before they get close enough to make the game feel competitive.

Still ultimately my choice for favorite game of the weekend has got to be Tapestry. I don’t consider a game having so much depth that it takes a few plays to get it figured a problem or a flaw of the game. To me, good games are challenging games and I want the game to push me to figure it out, I want that challenge of learning to play a game well and I don’t mind taking a pasting from more experienced players in that process. In fact, I prefer my games that way and while it can sometimes get frustrating to lose repeatedly and not fully understand why, the rewards for cracking the nut and winning that first game always feel so great.

More than that I think Tapestry is a really diverse game. Those culture/civilization cards really re-define the strategies and possibilities of the game creating this great replayability. Dune Imperium is a fantastic game and choosing Tapestry over it should not be seen as some sort of disparagement against it, but if you asked me this morning what game I want to play right now, I would definitely pick Tapestry.

I asked my gaming mates to call out their favorites, again I generally don’t reveal anyone’s identity on the blog so they shall remain hidden masked men behind the scenes, but their picks were as followed.

Player 1: Blood Rage
This did not surprise me at all, any Viking themed game is always going to be popular among Swedes and I’m fairly certain I saw him placing an order for Blood Rage on his phone before we were even done playing. It was his first time playing the game and I do recall how excited I was about the game the first time I played it as well. It’s an awesome game!

Player 2: Tapestry
Player 2 and I share a lot of the same tastes in games and I knew when I introduced him to Dune Imperium he would love it and I think he knew when he introduced me to Tapestry I would love it. We were both right, but, I agree with him that while Dune Imperium was a very close second, Tapestry wins it.

Player 3: Tapestry
Again not a shocker at all, both player 2 and 3 are hardened veterans, they know a good game when they see one and while I would imagine Dune Imperium was also on the radar for Player 3, I think among the guys who fill their book shelves with games as a matter of religion, Tapestry got our attention and had us checking our bank account status.

Player 4: Condottiere
Also not a big surprise, every person I have ever met who I introduced Condottiere to immediately takes to it and I have already replaced my copy 3 times as a result of giving it away to friends who loved it so much I just wanted to see the look on their face when I say, “Here you go, its yours now!” Condottiere really has that natural charm of a trick taking card game that makes it a conduit for turning non-gamers into gamers.

Player 5: Condottiere
I was a bit surprised by player 5 picking this one given the field of games this weekend, but I suppose I shouldn’t be. Condottiere is on the surface a simple trick taking game, but it’s really so much more than that between the sheets.

That’s it for this year, only 360 or so days until the next Hassela weekend, I can’t wait.