Helcon
Last weekend I attended Helcon III , a board games event in Helsinki.
We were playing in Asukastalo Ankkuri , a youth centre in the Herttoniemi district of Helsinki. The facilities were ideal, with plenty of room for the 40 or so board game players who attended from all over Finland.
I finally got a chance to play Elfenland , which I bought when I first got interested in board games. I've only ever played it two-player with Eve, but with five players it was a lot more fun. Other games I played were:
- Geschenkt!, a simple but fun abstract card game
- Spank the Monkey
- Carcassonne, a classic tile-laying board game
- Einfach Genial, Knizia's new abstract board game, which was very good
- St. Petersburg
- Pyramiden des Jaguar, a rather asbtract two-player game I didn't enjoy very much
- Niagara, a very enjoyable board game of trying to collect jewels by canoe without being washed over the waterfall
- Lost Valley, a fairly nice exploration game
Helcon is a very friendly event - people bring their own games and leave them on the shelves and tables at the sides for others to freely borrow and play. Most games are informal - when people arrive or finish a game, they start wandering around and choosing the next game to play. Once some have agreed on a game, they look around for other free people to join them, so it's easy to join a new game. I played with lots of different people - if only I could remember their names!
As well as the informal playing, a few tournaments were run, including Carcassonne and a tournament of randomly-selected two-player games. Luckily for me the Carcassonne tournament was played in a light and friendly spirit, and somehow I ended up winning!
Helcon was great fun - if you're interested in board games, I can strongly recommend attending next year's. I'll be there!
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