Kania’s Hobbies & Beyond

It’s a little bit hard spreading board game fever in Indonesia. Despite the expensive price, there aren’t many board game stores here. And board gaming is not kind of hobby that can be showed off and boast around like the overpriced ugly plant anthurium. Also there are no such thing as “board game show” like the cat show or dog show. It’s about gathering and having fun together with a little bit of competition.

From my experience, it’s not hard to find someone to play with. I can play board game with my family, my friends, my boyfriend.. The hardest part is to make them want to buy board games too. ALL of my friends rely on my board games collection. It’s different when you discussed a game with fellow gamers-collectors or with fellow gamers-only.

Wondering when there will be a board game exhibition or convention in Indonesia
*sigh*

I have ordered three board games that will be arrived approx. on July 2008, here they are
1. Shear Panic (2-4 players)
This one is not a brand new board game. My friend decided to sell some of his collections, including Paniek inde Wei, dutch version of Shear Panic. Shear Panic is about a flock of sheep that will be shaved by a shearer. We have to avoid being sheared!! I loooooooooove the cute pieces!!!! take a look

2. War of The Ring (2-4 (2 vs 2) players)
REALLY can’t wait for this game!!! My boyfriend and I love LOTR so much! I can’t wait to swim in the deep scenario, deciding who’s side he or i will win the battle! WOTR’s price supposed to be quite steep, but lucky me, i got 10% discount because the store is celebrating its first anniversary.

“In War of the Ring, one player takes control of the Free Peoples (FP), the other player controls Sauron’s Armies (SA).

Initially, the Free People Nations are reluctant to take arms against Sauron, so they must be attacked by Sauron or persuaded by Gandalf or other Companions, before they start to fight properly: this is represented by the Political Track, which shows if a Nation is ready to fight in the War of the Ring or not.

The game can be won by a military victory, if Sauron conquers a certain number of Free People cities and strongholds or viceversa. But the true hope of the Free Peoples lies with the quest of the Ringbearer: while the armies clash across Middle Earth, the Fellowship of the Ring is trying to get secretly to Mount Doom to destroy the One Ring. Sauron is not aware of the real intention of his enemies but is looking across Middle Earth for the precious Ring, so that the Fellowship is going to face numerous dangers, represented by the rules of The Hunt for the Ring. But the Companions can spur the Free Peoples to the fight against Sauron, so the Free People player must balance the need to protect the Ringbearer from harm, against the attempt to raise a proper defense against the armies of the Shadow, so that they do not overrun Middle Earth before the Ringbearer completes his quest.

Each game turn revolves around the roll of Action Dice: each die corresponds to an action that a player can do during a turn. Depending on the face rolled on each die, different actions are possible (moving armies, characters, recruiting troops, advancing a Political Track).

Action dice can also be used to draw or play Event Cards. Event Cards are played to represent specific events from the story (or events which could possibly have happened) which cannot be portrayed through normal gameplay. Each Event Card can also create an unexpected turn in the game, allowing special actions or altering the course of a battle.

Winner of the 2005 International Gamers Award.”
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So, here’s a list of my modern board games and card games since February 2008:
1. Ticket to Ride

2. Bohnanza

3. Zooloretto

4. Dust

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Actually, this is the 2nd expansion of Carcassonne. I decided to skip the first expansion, Carcassonne : Inns and Cathedrals because i want to try traders and builders first. It’s very interesting, with traders and builders, we can get goods tokens (wine, wheat, and garment) if we put the last tile on a city, whoever builds it. In the end of the game, who gets the most tokens of each kind, will score extra 10 points. That’s the traders part. While builders can get us extra turn. We put builder in a road or a city which already has a thief or a knight, then we get extra turn (we can place another tile) if we continue the road or the city.
The most interesting add-on is, the pig bits! Put pig on our farm, then farm score for each city will be 5 instead of 4.

From my gaming experience, Carcassonne : Traders and Builders makes the game more balance with more competition which means more way to gain points, and more gaming time. Perhaps i will consider buying the first expansion, Inns & Cathedrals because with this, I can play it with 5 other people (extra gray color bits) instead of 4 from the original Carcassonne and compatible with traders and builders also!
Pictures soon!

Yesterday, my whole family gathered for the first time this month. So after we visited our new house soon-to-be at Jalan Lamandau, we went to Kemang area to follow up my mom’s customized credenza and tv buffet at Julian Nyland . After that, we decided to have brunch. My father wanted to have it at Dijan’s but hey, i’m the one who had birthday last month. So I decided that we had to have something rather fancy. Then Huize van Wely came across my mind.

Huize van Wely is a restaurant and a pattiserie at The Papilion, Kemang, South Jakarta, Indonesia. It serves fine dining, yet i always love their high tea set since junior high. Lovely sweet cakes and cookies put on a fancy stacked silver trays to accompany their amazingly very delicious tea. I remember my first visit there, in my junior high school uniform, my mom “kidnapped” me and my sister after school :D.

Since we had brunch, i ordered something else. For appetizer, i had escargot: snails in butter, garlic, and herbs. Highly recommended! The butter was melting in my mouth and the garlic was just enough, not that overpowering to make my breath stink. It was very delicious.

Wild Strawberry Tea for the drink! across the tray was my sister’s croque-monsieur sandwich : wheat bread with gouda cheese and pastrami.

And for the main course, i ordered Roast Beef Sandwich. Sounds ordinary, isn’t it? but the beef was wagyu. Thin sliced wagyu roast beef in foccacia bread, if i’m not mistaken, with lettuce and a thin layer of mayonnaise. The beef itself was sooo sweet, tender, and lekker! I had fresh green
salad in olive oil and potato chips for side dishes. I finished it all clean!

Well i like the dessert comes first so actually, i had this before the appetizer hehehe..
I ordered mango sorbet which had tangy taste because it had no sugar at all. But i like tanginess so in my opinin, the sorbet was delicious. Don’t forget that huize van wely has wide selections of gourmet chocolates and cakes!

We had Sinaapsjes chocolate, suukade (orange peel sweets) in dark chocolate, our favourite! And almond nougat, and a not-so-good orange truffle. Seriously, do not have this orange truffle labeled as “Grand Orange”. It was a dissappointment!

Overall, i gave 4 stars out of 5 for Huize van Wely.