My Very Own Board Game Blog

2007 Retrospective

2007 was a year of many games. In honor of Peter King, the only sportswriter that I read even semi-regularly, here are ten things I think I think:
1. I think I really enjoy trick-taking games. Bridge is my all time favorite. aBridged is basically "bridge-lite" and fun when you don't have people around who have already learned bridge. I like Wizard because you can play with 3 to 6 people.
2. I think Ingenious is clever, fun, and doesn't last too long.
3. I think Lost Cities is one of the best two-player only games I've played.
4. I think auction games often have potential for greatness, but I often don't want to teach them because they can take several plays to really understand. New players can destroy themselves with one or two bad auction decisions, which doesn't make for a fun learning experience.
5. I think I'm constantly surprised by how many people play Settlers of Catan for the first time and just love it. I should probably just expect that reaction by now.
6. I think I would buy a copy of Nobody But Us Chickens if it were still in print.
7. I think Puerto Rico is still my favorite board game (as opposed to card game) and I should try to play it more often in 2008. Too bad it's no longer available on BSW.
8. I think I need to play Enemy Chocolatier again.
9. I think that despite all the good things I've heard about 18xx, it may be difficult to convince me to play a 3 hour plus game.
10. I think I need to seriously consider trading out some of the stuff in my collection that has very little chance of hitting the table.

Full Year Stats for 2007:

• Individual Game Sessions: 139
• New Titles Played: 26

posted by Chris @ 1/11/2008 10:39:00 AM 1 comments

School of Games

On Thursday, I reacquainted my uncle with Tigris & Euphrates. (I borrowed Todd's German edition with English translation for the holidays.)

On Friday, I taught several games to RK and a couple of his friends. RK and I started out with two-player Tigris & Euphrates, followed by a quick round of Lost Cities. Then, his two buddies arrived and we played Ingenious, Can't Stop, Nobody But Us Chickens, and Give Me the Brain. Finally, RK and I got in another round of Lost Cities before dinner.

Tigris & Euphrates is pretty good, but I don't think it will make it into my top tier of games. I'm definitely interested in playing more Lost Cities, which is fairly easy given that it's on BSW. Ingenious has been popular with everyone I've taught it to, and I think it makes a great 3-4 player game. Nobody But Us Chickens seems to improve as you add more people. Can't Stop is a good quick game that doesn't require too much thinking. Give Me the Brain is amusing at times, but altogether too random for my taste.

Stats as of December 28th:

• Individual Game Sessions: 138
• New Titles Played: 26
• Days elapsed/remaining: 362 / 3

posted by Chris @ 12/29/2007 09:24:00 AM 1 comments

On the Second Day of Christmas...

... my gaming count shall be
Lost Cities played online,
Can't Stop with the family,
and Ingenious with four players, won by me.

Stats as of December 26th:

• Individual Game Sessions: 130
• New Titles Played: 26
  
• Days elapsed/remaining: 360 / 5

posted by Chris @ 12/27/2007 07:01:00 AM 0 comments

Christmas Day Gaming

What better way to start Christmas morning than by logging in to BSW and playing some Can't Stop and Lost Cities? Ok, so I'm sure you can think of some better ideas, but since I was waiting for breakfast to be served, I thought I'd get some light gaming in. Later in the afternoon, I went over to my aunt and uncle's house for more gaming. We started off with a tight game of Ingenious and then I showed them how to play Nobody But Us Chickens. Late last night, I suffered a crushing defeat at Lost Cities on BSW. We played to 300, and I only scored 225. I closed out the night by trying out WBridge5, a free standalone bridge program. All in all, it was a good day for games.

Stats as of December 25th:

• Individual Game Sessions: 127
• New Titles Played: 26
  
• Days elapsed/remaining: 359 / 6
  

posted by Chris @ 12/26/2007 06:46:00 AM 1 comments

The End (of 2007) Is Near!

...and again I have not posted in months. Since my last major summary post, I've played these games:

• Rheinlander (new)
• Wizard (x6) (new)
• Phoenicia (new)
• RA (x2)
• Attika (x2)
• Memoir '44 (x2) (new)
• Bridge (x7)
• Ingenious
• Lost Cities
• Medici
• Alhambra
• Race for the Galaxy (x4) (new)
• 6 Nimmt
• Can't Stop
• Word Game Prototype (x2) (new) (playtest)

Also, on September 29th, I had a game party, which Todd has already posted about. More than 20 people stopped by throughout the day and a good time was had by all. At the party, I played:

• San Juan
• Ingenious
• Category 5
• TransAmerica
• Nobody But Us Chickens (new)
• Chess
• Family Business
• Can't Stop
• Bridge (x3)
  

There's still some holiday gaming yet to go this year,
but here are the stats as of December 21st:

• Individual Game Sessions: 121
  
• New Titles Played: 26
  
• Days elapsed/remaining: 355 / 10

posted by Chris @ 12/21/2007 05:16:00 PM 0 comments

Three Month Summary

In corporate accounting, a quarterly summary of activity is very normal and reasonable. In blogging, it tends to imply that I have more important things to do than post. What can I say? It's been a very busy three months.

So here are the games I've played in the past 3 months:

• TransAmerica (x2)
• Puerto Rico
• Attika
• Qwirkle (new)
• aBridged (x4) (new)
• Prototype Space Game (x2) (new) (playtest)
• Ingenious
• Fische Fluppen Frikadellen
• Euchre (new)
• Cities and Knights of Catan

Stats as of September 2nd:

• Individual Game Sessions: 80
• New Titles Played: 19
• Days elapsed/remaining: 245 / 120
  

posted by Chris @ 9/02/2007 07:15:00 AM 0 comments

Lots of gaming, not much posting

Another massive summary of the past 6 weeks.
April 26th - RA and RoboRally (new) - Some days, I can grind out a mean game of RA, other days, like 4/26/07, I just get ground into the sand. RoboRally is pretty cool, but a bit too time-consuming for my taste.
April 28th - I ran a playtesting session. It was pretty fun, but a very tiring day.
May 3rd - Fluxx and PowerGrid (Benelux) - I still need some help figuring out how to not lose badly at PowerGrid.
May 10th - 6 Nimmt, Fairy Tale (new), Bohnanza - My 6 Nimmt game was off that night, I took lots of points. Fairy Tale needs more than one play for me to get a clue.
May 17th - Another playtesting session. It ran a bit late for a Thursday night.
May 24th - Beowulf (new) - Epic adventure in the style of an auction game. Every epic adventure has casualties, and I was one of them.
May 27th - Rummikub (new) - Some of my friends that I don't usually game with introduced me to this classic game. They were impressed that they could introduce me, the gamer, to a new game. We only played one round, and I was the big loser. We are definitely using the 2 minute time limit per turn next time. There's a reason for that rule.
May 28th - Puerto Rico and Wyatt Earp - A small group at my house on Memorial Day.

Stats as of June 1st:

• Individual Game Sessions: 65
• New Titles Played: 15
• Days elapsed/remaining: 152 / 213

posted by Chris @ 6/01/2007 03:23:00 PM 0 comments