God, Chess, Candyland and Scrabble

In a meeting last week I was asked the question 'What is a sign of hope for you?'. Most people thought of images from the natural world. I thought of my wall of board games.

All board games fall on a spectrum. At one end are games like Chess and Go that have no luck element at all. You win by entirely by your own efforts, by your own grasp of strategy. If you lose (or when in my case) you have nobody to blame but yourself.

At the other end of the spectrum are games like Chutes and Ladders, Candyland or LCR. You are entirely at the mercy of the dice or the cards, at no point in the game do you ever make any decision. I tend to view this style of a game less as a game and more as a fun social activity.

I prefer games that fall somewhere towards the middle of the spectrum. Games such as Backgammon or Risk both have an element of chance, but it is the combination of luck together with the meaningful choices that you have to make to capitalize on your good fortune or mitigate your bad that appeals to me.

Why does this feel like a sign of hope? It is because when playing a game that is in the middle of the spectrum I know that even if I fall behind there is always the hope that good fortune will turn my way and I have a chance of victory. Last place never feels hopeless.

My relationship with God seems to fall on a very similar spectrum. There are times when it feels all on my shoulders. Life is like a game of Chess and it is all about the decisions I make. I am the master of my fate I am the captain of my soul.

This makes me very prone to ego.

At other times I feel that nothing I do matters. Like a game of Chutes and Ladders I am entirely at the mercy of the universe with God as Puppeteer manipulating my life for his own designs.

This makes me very prone to fatalism and depression.

I like to live in the middle ground between these two extremes. I try and do the best I can with what I have and I trust that God will somehow meet me in the gap and make what I offer so much more than just what I can do alone.

This makes me very prone to hopefulness....and why I find God in my collection of board games.

Christmas in November

Working for a church spoils Christmas. So much of my focus and energy is in facilitating the 'Christmas Experience' for others that I barely have the energy for myself.

Christmas for me starts in the summer. I'm composing and arranging new anthems. Reflecting on new devotional material. Thinking of ways to make the old old story seem new.

When I was a child Christmas held out a promise of a break from the routine. School stopped. I slept in a different room to accommodate visiting relatives. Special foods (some good, some not so much) made an appearance. Bed time rules were relaxed. We delighted in 'the new'. New presents. New movies on TV. We reconnected with the old traditions while forging new ones.

Somewhere along the way that changed.

I embrace wholeheartedly the Christmas story, but so many years of Christmas Sermons and Pageants have done some damage. For the Christian the gift of Jesus is the pinnacle of the season, however I've heard many messages about the 'True Meaning of Christmas' that seem to carry a thin veneer of guilt rather than point me to the manger. The subtle message that if you are enjoying anything else rather than Jesus then you are celebrating Christmas wrong. 

Anyway, it's not even Thanksgiving yet, why am I blogging about Christmas?

Every year in November I attend a Board Game Convention in Dallas. It is one of the highlights of my year. I book the Convention and start making plans in March. Somebody asked me last week why I get so excited about attending.

For me BGG Con feels like Christmas felt when I was a child.

The wonder of seeing old friends. Staying up late. Eating differently. Discovering new games. Taking delight in play. Laughing way too much. 

I feel alive in a wonderful way at BGG Con. Play and Celebration lift me out of the Ordinary and I feel connected to the Numinous. I'm being where I'm meant to be doing what I am wired to do.

If you are not a board gamer then that may sound ridiculous, but I guarantee there is something in your life that when you do it you come alive. 

Maybe you paint. 

Maybe you run marathons. 

Maybe you create spreadsheets.

Maybe you perform in a folk dance group.

Maybe you knit clothes for dogs.

Whatever it is, when you find it, pursue it. 

When Christians celebrate Christmas they celebrate the Holy becoming incarnate in the Ordinary, God putting on skin and moving into the neighborhood. 

When you find your own piece of the Ordinary that seems to lift you up, that nurtures your spirit, then I think you are celebrating Christmas the right way. Forget about religious guilt or joyless piety, reconnect with Wonder and Delight....

....and that is why, for me, Christmas falls in November every year.

Playing in the Presence of God

(Random thoughts for Sunday's Contemplative Service)

I still remember the first time I was shamed about play.

In middle school it was common for us to call our friends and see if they wanted to play. We'd get together and play board games, video games, and play with our computers together. When I went to High School I remember phoning a friend and asking him if he wanted to play.

"Play?", he responded. "How childish!"

We got together anyway and we played board games, video games and played with our computers together. The activity was the same as before but I quickly learned that the word 'play' always had to be quantified. We could 'play video games', but we couldn't just play.

As I grew older play was somehow viewed as a waste of time, time that could have been spent doing something more productive. Somehow this attitude all got wrapped up in Protestant Christianity -  the idea that you display your salvation through hard work, frugality, diligence and seriousness.

I remember when I started work at Mercy Street, I was in a meeting and was told that as a member of staff I was expected to 'Work hard and play hard'. At first I reveled in the freedom to be allowed to play, but implied in that statement is that play is something we are driven to do, that we approach play with the same seriousness that we approach work. We have a task to do and we are going to get through it with due haste.

In the late 1800's an English Anthropologist made the suggestion that games and play might prove very useful to his work studying indigenous tribes because people are truly themselves when they play games. Most children do not need permission to play. Many adults still feel it is wasteful. I even have a book called 'The Christian at Play'.....it's as if we are so averse to play in the church that we can only do it if we have theological justification.

God has wired us for play. We are to keep Sabbath for our re-creation and rest. Play connects us to each other, it's an antidote to loneliness and depression. It stimulates creativity. Play helps us work better.

Play is not a waste of time because play itself is productive. It nurtures and heals. It helps us step more fully into who God has created us to be.

Let's play.

May Games Played

This post is really late. I've found it hard to get motivated to post recently, I'm not really sure why, just the season I'm in I guess.

May had 17 plays of 14 different games.

Three games had the dubious honor of being played twice in May:

Condottiere - bidding to take control of regions in Renaissance Italy. Nothing really stands out for me about this game, though it was quick and slightly more devious than expected at first glance.

Letters from Whitechapel - one player has the dubious honor of playing Jack the Ripper, killing a different victim each night. The rest are policemen trying to hunt him down and stop him returning to his lair.

Here is a crazy video about the game

The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game  - a two person cooperative card game that I cannot see what all the fuss is about!

So, were there any games that did stick out this past month?

Blue Moon City - made it back to the table for the first time since I've been keeping records. It was nice to play it again and I hope I don't wait years before it returns to the table.

Dominant Species returned but still didn't get a full play. I find this game rather overwhelming, there is so much going on. I need to sit down with the rulebook myself and try and get a better feel for it.

May 2010 I played 33 boardgames. 17 for 2011 is rather disappointing, but partially the result of not hosting Memorial Day gaming this year.

Oh well - hopefully June's statistics will be better.



I'm a Cartoon :D

This is a pic of me from a few years ago, playing the boardame Einfach Genial!



And this is cartoon me playing the same game as drawn by my talented friend Brandon! Thanks a lot buddy!!!

April Board Games Played

This will be a very sparse post as I'm fighting a head cold and losing, but I wanted to get these listed before I forgot.

April had 18 plays of 13 different games...so which were the lucky ones that got played twice?

Black Friday - Buying and selling shares, interesting and challenging (and not quite as fiddly as it seems once you get a good understanding of the rules)

Enemy Chocolatier - I don't remember much about it...obviously it didn't make much of an impression.

For Sale - the classic filler game, fun and tension in real estate, and the game plays in 30 mins woohoo.

Prophecy - It's a modern version of the classic 'Talisman' game, but it still feels too long for what it is.

Telestrations - It's a drawing party game. Keeping score doesn't work, but you are guaranteed to laugh a lot.


Other games played?

Armorica, Bohnanza, Castle Panic, Coyote, London, Members Only, Piece of Cake and Shadows Over Camelot.

March Games Played

I had a bit of a lull in games played in March, I only managed 22 plays of 18 different games (down from 28 in 2010).

4 games had the honor of being played twice.

Bohnanza I'd actually forgotten how much fun it is to plant beans. It doesn't outlast its welcome and you get to negotiate some fun deals.

Boggle I am not really a fan of word games, I struggle to see words when the letters are jumbled up, I'm not a big fan of scrabble either for the same reason.

Don Quixote It's a tile placement game that features neither Don Quixote, Sancho Panza or Dulcinea!  It wasn't that exciting, nothing new or particularly innovative, but it was quick :D

Wits and Wagers It's a good game for a crowd, not that difficult and it doesn't outstay its welcome.

 It was nice to see Black Friday hit the table again (even if I did get a rule wrong), and I was glad Master Thieves got played as it is the most expensive game I own.


I've also got everything booked for my annual Board Game Convention in November - the convention totally sold out in 5 days, so I'm glad I was able to get a place :)

February Games Played

In February I managed 19 plays of 14 different games. In Feb 2010 I managed 28 plays so this is a fairly sizable reduction :(

Top of the list for Feb is one of my fave card games Sticheln
It's a great card game with a lot of surprises, it can be tricky to learn, but it is satisfying once you grasp what is going on :)

Second with 2 plays is Black Friday - the most recent offering from Friedeman Friesse. At first glance you wouldn't expect me to like this game, it's about trading shares and manipulating markets and seems an exercise in statistics, probability and observation...but for some reason I do enjoy it. I even constructed a 4 page flow chart to make the game play easier to learn!!!!!

Die Fugger (another favorite) also managed 2 plays. Trading goods and influencing market prices....a great game all contained in a tiny deck!

The other game with 2 plays was Palastgefluster

The game count may have been lower for February...but I did get to sit in the Caribbean sunshine with good friends playing games while on an awesome cruise....luxury!!!!

January Games Played

I managed 33 plays of 28 different games....

...so what were the 5 games that got 2 plays?

Chains of Fenrir - light, quick, and easily portable.

Kingsburg - I got the expansion for Christmas so I had to re familiarize myself with the base game...somehow the expansion is still in shrink...must open it soon.

Rattus - because a game where you are trying to give other people the Black Plague while you are avoiding it yourself is always fun...actually it is a great little strategy game that doesn't outstay its welcome.

The Resistance - a group deduction game like Werewolf, but without player elimination. Lying never felt so good!

Revolution - although it's basically a glorified Rock Paper Scissors, the amount of double think and screwage that goes on with this game is enjoyable!

A couple of games of special note this month that only received a single play:

Through the Ages - I finally managed to play a full game of this, it took Steve and I 5 hours to complete, and it was a real nail biting finish that I only lost by 7 points. As this was my first full game and my first play in 8 months I felt good about how I acquitted myself :)

Glory To Rome - a popular game whose cartoony graphics seem at contrast to its depth. I'm glad I finally got to play this :)

Quarters, Fives and Dimes - a Year of Boardgames

Like many of my fellow boardgame geeks I log when I play a game online here so that I can see trends. Now I played a lot of games(!) in 2010. I logged 382 plays of 173 games, so obviously there were some repeats. Games that reach the distinction of being played 5, 10 or 25 times become Quarters, Fives and Dimes. When you have as many different games as I have then each of the games that reach this honor must have something to distinguish them from the herd. Here's my take on the games of 2010. For the games of 2009 click here

Quarters

Werewolf is my only quarter in 2010 with 27 plays, in fact it is my first quarter ever as no game came close in 2009. In 2009 I only managed 6 plays, so why the jump to 27 last year? The simple answer is Bering UMC game night. They have a once a month game night that some friends who attend that church invited me too. They wanted to introduce people to games outside the usual fare of Mexican Train, Rummikub and Uno. Werewolf is a great large group game - you need at least 8 people to play, and it is easy to learn so long as the Moderator has a good handle on the rules and a flair for drama :) It's become a staple of their game nights since I introduced it.

Dimes

Hive almost got there with 23 plays. This elegant 2 player game didn't even make it into rotation last year as I did not own a set. The bulk of plays happened in the first 8 months of last year - obviously something came along to remove it from popularity, or someone. Hive only plays 2 people, so whenever a third person appears it is removed from the table.

Dominion had 17 plays last year which is down from 22 in 2009. It's fast, and has enough expansions to keep the game interesting. It may not have been number one in 2010, but the fact that it is still in the top 3 is a sign of a great game.

Animal Upon Animal is a simple children's dexterity game. I played this 13 times in 2010. Seven times on one day!!! It's amazing the things I will do to keep young children entertained.

Fluch de Mumie is another awesome children's game that I managed 10 plays of. This one is fun to play with just adults too as it turns into an intriguing cat and mouse game of deduction as the mummy tries to locate the archaeologists who are stealing treasures from his pyramid.

Nickels

Sticheln is a trick taking game that is wonderfully painful to play. Trump constantly changes every trick, and with most of the deck giving you negative points a positive score is very difficult to achieve. I managed 9 plays last year.

Ascension is probably the game I am most surprised to see on this list. I managed 8 plays of this game which is surprising as I didn't even learn the game until Nov 19th! It's a cross between Dominion and Magic the Gathering.






Tichu managed 8 plays last year. It's a great 4 player card game that takes a while to get your head around. It's one of the standard late night games at the boardgame convention that I attend every year. Last year I entered the tournament and sucked!!! But it's still great fun.

Pitchcar is a silly game that involves flicking wooden cars around a racetrack. There's really not much else to say, easy to learn, and hilarious to play. I managed 7 plays last year.

The Bucket King is a card game with surprising depth. The different animals on the farm all charge at different colored buckets. Your task is to keep your pyramid of buckets intact for as long as possible. I managed 7 plays of this game, 4 of which took place while on a vacation to Disney World :)





Ta Yu is a nice 2 player game. You take turns laying tiles on a board trying to connect the two sides. The board hit the table 7 times in 2010

Felix the Cat in the Sack is a Texas Hold em Variant transformed under the guise of bidding for a sack of unidentified cats! 5 plays for the curious felines in 2010







Pass the Bomb is a light party game. It's amazing how blank your mind can go when you are trying to name words while holding a ticking bomb. The bomb got passed around 5 times in 2010.

Telestrations is a published version of the Telephone Game. The erasable books make the game easy to play and the fun is often not so much in who wins (indeed it's very difficult to score) but more in the silly progressions of the words. It's more of a fun activity than a game, but the important this is that it is fun - I received the game as a door prize at the Board game Convention in November, so the fact that it has managed 5 plays in a month and a half shows how much fun it is.

Fallen from Grace-games that had a minimum of 5 plays in 2009 that were not touched at all in 2010

Chains of Fenrir fell from the table as other games superseded it, but it has been played in 2011 so it's not beyond hope.

Duck Duck Go also disappeared from view in 2010 with zero plays.

Travel Blokus had 5 plays in one day in 2009 and has been gathering dust ever since.

Uno received 5 plays in 3 days due to a family vacation in 2009, it also has not hit the table since.

The Top Three

When I combine the data from both years, there are no real surprises.

Dominion has 39 plays.

Werewolf has 33 plays

Hive has 23

Most of these games can be purchased at thoughthammer.com though a few of them are out of print.

If you're looking for a game suggestion for a group, ask me :)

Tune in next year, for my gaming review!!!!

November Gaming

November is always a bounteous month for games as I get to go to the BoardGameGeek.Com annual convention in Dallas.

So in November I managed 58 plays of 33 different games.

Here are the top three:

Fluch De Mumie (Pyramid) is a children's game that parents won't get bored by easily. I managed 7 plays this month - mainly as the Mummy :)

Ascension (6 plays). Ascension is the next hybrid of deck building games, it feels like the offspring of Dominion and Magic the Gathering.

Hang on Harvey (4 plays) Wow another children's game. But one that is very silly!!!


So what did I play at the convention???

Wednesday

Die Fugger (a favorite of mine)
Neue Heimat (2 plays) - a tense economic game about building real estate.
Black Friday - the new game from Friedeman Friesse. Buying and selling stocks while trying to avoid the market crash that happens at some point in the game.

Thursday

Kings and Things an old school fantasy fighting game. Not really my thing.
Tichu (3 plays) I love a game of tichu, but three in a row for the tournament felt a bit much!
Crokinole - a fun partnership dexterity game!
Timber Tom - racing hikers trying to reach the tops of various mountain peaks first
Hive (3 plays) - a great abstract strategy game that plays quickly and I love.
Freeze - a rather silly party acting game, good for late nights.

Friday

Regatta - a table top sail boat race. It felt like an improved version of Techno Witches
Merchants of the Middle Ages - buying, shipping and selling goods. I like it, but I'm terrible at it.
Ascension - the first of many plays!
Great Fire of London - interesting. Running fire brigades around London trying to protect your property!
I9N (2 plays) - a deduction game. I needed either a notepad or a quiet room to be able to play this, I couldn't keep all the information in my head!
Rattus - because who doesn't love a game where you get to ravage Europe with the Black Plague!!!
funfair It was late at night, we were tired, enough said

Saturday

Get Bit - 'You don't have to swim faster than the shark, just faster than your friends'
Castle Ravenloft - Dungeons and Dragons with a board and no Dungeon Master.
Abandon Ship - Reiner Knizia creates a dice game with rats trying to leave a sinking ship. Light and frothy and mildly amusing
Ascension - yes it hit the table again!!!!!
Innovation - I'm not sure my opinion on this yet. For some reason it reminds of Fluxx but with better mechanics!

Sunday

Kaigan - Mapping Japan's coastline. I was so tired by this point in the weekend I could barely strategize!



So how do the statistics for the year look?

Well Werewolf is still top with 26 plays, but Hive is close behind with 23. Dominion is in third place with 17 plays and then we have a tie for fourth place with two children's games, Animal upon Animal and Fluch De Mumie.

As I look at the potential for Quarters, Nickels and Dimes (25, 5, 10 plays) it looks like there will be 14 games to achieve that illustrious status as a coin!

October's Games

October featured 25 plays of 14 different games. Top of the list?

Werewolf I have played 29 games of Werewolf this year so far, 5 of them in October, and I foresee some more in the future. Well, when I say play, I can assume that actually for the majority of these games I've been Moderating the game for others rather than playing it myself. But moderating it is fun and creative so it still counts :)

Forbidden Island (3 plays) is by game designer Matt Leacock who also designed Pandemic which I played twice this month. They share similar mechanics and are both cooperative games where the players join forces as a team to beat the game. In forbidden Island the goal is to rescue 4 treasures from the island before it sinks into the ocean. I like the way the pace of this game speeds up as the game continues. It starts off looking easy to do but the island starts sinking faster and faster and so some difficult decisions have to be made. Ultimately a lot comes down to the shuffling of one deck of cards to whether you can achieve your goal or not. I enjoy this and I think it is a good gateway game to introduce people to cooperative gaming.

Haggle is a game that deserves special mention as it doesn't get played very often. I ran this game on our Men's Retreat this year. I handed out over 45 envelopes each containing 10 random colored cards and two rules. The men had approximately 24 hours to negotiate and trade deals with one another. At the end of that time they submitted an envelope with a set of cards that I scored according to all 15 rules.

A large part of the game is in obtaining and interpreting all 15 rules. Not an easy task. Of all the envelopes I handed out I received back 7 which I scored using a spreadsheet that my friend Bill prepared for me - scoring by hand is a real hassle, so thanks Bill!!!!

Some of the guys got really into trying to obtain all 15 rules. They managed it, but even then interpreting their interplay is not the easiest task, and they were beaten by the youngest kid at the retreat who only saw half the rules but took a very educated guess. I love surprise upsets!!!

Snowtails made a welcome return to the table, as did Die Aufsteiger.

In a few weeks I will be off to Dallas for my yearly boardgame convention :) 5 days of playing boardgames with other aficionados. Who knows what new and exciting games I will return with!!!

Child Sacrifice, Euchre and God

I'm doing a lot of reading as part of my Ignatian Spirituality Small Group, and one passage that has stuck with me recently is Genesis 22:1-19 It's a passage that I used to like, but now have conflicting opinions about. God decides to test Abraham buy asking him to sacrifice his only son Isaac to him on Mount Moriah. It takes 3 days to get there, and on the third day, whilst carrying the wood for the fire Isaac finally asks the question that has been on his mind. "Where is the lamb for the burnt offering?" Abraham responds "God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son." When they reach the mountain top, they get everything ready and then Abraham quickly ties up Isaac places him on the Altar and raises his knife. It's at this point an Angel tells Abraham to stop. He tells Abraham that the scenario has been a test to see whether Abraham really does fear God. A ram is found caught in the thicket that is used for the offering instead.

I'm guessing Isaac was in therapy with trust/daddy/God issues for quite a long time!

There is some evidence that Child Sacrifice was as an Ancient Near Eastern Practice of both the Moabites and the Ammonites. It's fascinating to read how people have wrestled with interpreting this passage. Click here for a good summary.

According to Rabbi J. H. Hertz (Chief Rabbi of the British Empire), child sacrifice was actually "rife among the Semitic peoples," and he suggests that "in that age, it was astounding that Abraham's God should have interposed to prevent the sacrifice, not that He should have asked for it."

That interpretation appeals to me because it opens me up to my own assumptions about God. Abraham is shown that his God is different to the Gods of the cultures around him. YHWH prevents an act that may have been a common occurrence in the culture and shocks Abraham in the process (it would be like God stopping the offering plates from being passed around in the middle of worship!). YHWH Suddenly becomes a lot different to what Abraham expects.

I wonder how much my culture has influenced my understanding of who God is.

Imagine you had grown up only playing Euchre, a trick taking game that uses a deck of cards consisting of 9 through Ace in 4 suits. All you know is a deck of 28 cards and one rule set.

Then someone hands you a deck with 52 cards and teaches you Poker, Bridge, Rummy, Hearts, etc

Suddenly the size of the deck and the possibilities for games has gotten a lot greater.

That's what my Spiritual Journey has felt like. The shift from '28 cards to 52 cards' was quite an adjustment in the spiritual realm. A lot of who God was for me shifted, and that shift felt as surprising as God interposing to prevent the sacrifice...

...and then I discovered and even bigger world of card games, stepping beyond my deck of 52 cards. Games involving decks with 5 or more different suits, and sometimes as many as 18 or 19 cards in each suit.

The possibilities are overwhelming.

God keeps getting bigger...

...and every time I wonder if I am crossing over the line from orthodoxy to heresy. I thought I was open about God, then I discovered that all I was doing was shuffling the 'cards' I already had, unwilling to admit that there might be more. I still find myself wanting to speak with absolute certainty about divine mystery.

I need to realize that when it comes to understanding God, none of us are playing with full decks.

September Games!

September was a slow month for games - 21 plays of a total of 15 different games, but there were some surprises to the list.

Ad Astra

This game of space exploration and colonization had not hit the table since 2009, and then somehow in September we remembered how good it was and it hit the table 3 times! Given the number of games we have, this is quite exceptional. The game plays like a hybrid of Settlers of Catan and Wallenstein/Shogun. Trading happens less in this game than Settlers, but the random element of what gets produced each turn is eliminated. With the clever card mechanism you can always guarantee that you can get what you want, but sometimes it's better to hope that someone else chooses what you want to do (so that you can do it as well and then use your turns to do something else). I'm not that good at predicting other people's moves as yet, but I enjoy the game :)

Castle Ravenloft

This game garnered 2 plays. It's based on the Dungeons and Dragons System, but this game has no need for a Dungeon Master to run the adventure and doesn't really feel like a role playing system. I used to play D&D as a teenager....I know in some people's minds that could mean I am 'Tainted by Satan' as D&D gained a ridiculous reputation as a gateway to Witchcraft and Satanism.

In a random aside, my parents were perfectly content for me and my friends to sit at the dining room table playing Dungeons and Dragons, but I was severely chastised when some of the Youth Group held a prayer meeting at our house!!!!!

But back to Castle Ravenloft. I'm not sure how it would bear up to repeated plays, the game is definitely one that I am sure the company will milk for expansions as some have already been announced. Having said that, it is a lot of fun and the way the game handles the monsters is very clever. It's also the kind of game you can teach as you play which is a bonus. The miniatures that come with the game look cool and add to the ambiance, and as it comes with many different adventures and a random modular board system I think it would be fairly repeatable, which means I probably just contradicted myself :)

Dvonn

Going back to the theme of old games making a surprising reappearance, with 2 plays, here is Dvonn. It's a 2 player abstract game, that plays quickly and offers some very interesting tactical decisions. Dvonn hadn't been played since July 09, so again it is surprising that it hit the table twice in September, though it is a great game to play while waiting for others to arrive.

Other older games making surprising reappearances include:

Bohnanza - fun planting beans :)

Notre Dame - watch out for those plague rats.

Stone Age - keeping your tribe alive.

The most interesting new games were Innovation and Hansa Teutonica. If I have to pick between the two I'll probably go with Innovation. Hansa Teutonica felt to me like a complex version of Thurn and Taxis, though to be fair, I was in the mood to play a different game, so I was a little biased against Hansa Teutonica before it hit the table. I'll definitely try it again.

For all of 2010 I have now played 119 different board games and logged 275 plays!!! April was my highest month with 47 plays, and June my lowest with only 19 (but as I was in nightly rehearsals for a musical during the entire month of June I'm impressed I managed that many)

August Games

AAAARRRGGGHHHH!

I never posted the games I played in August :( I'm such a slacker.

August had 35 plays of 19 different games

Top games of the month with 3 plays a piece were Dominion, Felix - the cat in the sack and Ta Yu.

Nothing very extra ordinary in that bunch...so what games from August stuck out for me?

Marracash made it back to the table after a very long absence and was very enjoyable. Building market stalls in the old city and acting as a guide to tourists is a fun way to make a profit. I know how to play the game, but there are so many ways to make money in this gem I've not quite worked out the strategy yet.

Small World also hadn't been on the table for a while. It's fun using flying Tritons to take down some Bivouacking Elves :)


Currently for this year Hive is still in the no 1 spot with 20 plays, but Werewolf is close behind at 18.

July Games Played

I've been travelling a lot so I haven't had a chance to post, but here is July's Games.

I played 23 games of 18 different games.

The highlights?

Well Dominion was top with 4 plays. It was last years top game, and it is showing no sign of slowing down as yet. It's turning into an interesting battle for the top spot. Hive still has the lead for the year with 18 plays, but it hasn't hit the table in the last 2 months. Werewolf has 17 plays, and Dominion has 15 - anyone could be the end of year winner, or could something else emerge?

Power Grid - Factory Manager had 2 plays this past month as did Sticheln which is fast becoming one of my favorite trick taking games.

The rest of the month was taken up with single plays of various games, some old faithfuls and some new games. The latter category included first plays of Castle Keep, Ghost Stories, Homesteaders, Im Reich der Jadegottin, Nuns on the Run and Tarantel Tango.

I seem to have a habit of playing many new games and not so many repeats, maybe I'll push for some older faithfuls to reappear on the table.

June Games Played

June was a very low month for games seeing as I was in rehearsals every week night for 'The Mystery of Edwin Drood', but I still managed 19 plays of a total of 6 different games - though I hasten to add that 13 of those plays were in one evening of helping someone babysit!

Animal Upon Animal

A simple stacking game that can get surprisingly competitive due to the fun randomness of the shapes :)

Gulo Gulo

Another dexterity game, this time stealing eggs from a nest. Incidentally this pic on the left is 3 generations of my family all playing Gulo Gulo. That's my Mom, Brother and Nephew all engrossed in a game many years ago.

The other games this month were:

Pass the Bomb (a good party game)

The Bucket King

Fluch De Mumie

Tichu

So after 6 months, here are the top three:

First with 18 plays is Hive.

Second place with 16 plays is Werewolf

Third place with 10 plays is Animal Upon Animal

Last years winner Dominion is lagging behind in 4th place with 8 plays.

So far this year I have played 193 games!!!!! Will I beat last years record of 378 plays? It's looking possible

The May Game Update - a Month of Surprises

I played 33 games in May of 20 different titles.

In a surprise resurgence last year's top game reappeared in May and had the top number of plays with 5.

Dominion is still one of those games that I will not refuse and it makes a welcome return to the leader board. Interestingly the game that has been in the lead for 2010 Hive only got played twice in May...this means an interesting race could be on for Most Played Game of the Year.

No other games really stood out this month in terms of quantity played but a few unexpected games made the list.

Uruk: Wiege der Zivilisation is a civilization game that plays in about 60 minutes. I generally don't enjoy these that much, but this one captured my attention, maybe because I don't feel like I have to invest a large portion of my life to play it.

Having said that I also played Through the Ages: A Story of Civilization again this month. A game that generally takes about 4 hours to play, again not my usual style of game, but remarkably enjoyable.

And rounding out the list of games that I didn't expect to like is Tinner's Trail by Martin Wallace. Martin's games have a reputation for complexity, fiddly rules and a long playing time. The only other game that I remember playing is Brass. I've played one game of that with the board and then we switched to playing online as the computer took care of a lot of the confusing management of the game.

Tinner's Trail surprised me because all the elements combined in a very logical way that created a very elegant game about mining Tin and Copper in Cornwall. The game plays in about an hour and doesn't feel like it outstays its welcome in any way.

April Games

April was a good month with 47 games played of 27 different games! Here are some of the highlights of the month.

Hive is still in the lead with 6 plays in April. It's been one of my tops games every month so far and I don't see the obsession slowing down soon. By contrast my top played game of last year Dominion has not hit the table this year yet. I am off to the U.K. tomorrow, I've already sent my family over there the game Dominion, so that will hit the table, and I've just thrown Hive in my suitcase too :)

Werewolf has hit the table again in April, but another one of my current obsessions is the game Sticheln I've heard various theories about the name of this game, apparently it is a German pun that doesn't really translate. I believe the name is a sort of pun -- "sticheln", as I understand it, means "to prick", while "Stich" is the word for "trick" (the card game version.) Imagine a trick taking game where a) you don't have to follow the suit that was led and b) every card that is not the same as the color led is instantly trump! Then add a crazy scoring system that makes it very easy to get negative points and you get some of the painful enjoyment that is Sticheln. The game play is very interactive and you often have to choose between giving yourself a few positive points or giving a lot of negative points to a competitor :)

Dixit is almost at the other end of the spectrum to Sticheln. Yes there is a game here complete with keeping score, but your score seems almost irrelevant to the fun of the game. The cards feature some of the most beautiful artwork I have seen.

Through the Ages is not the sort of game I normally enjoy.

A full game usually takes about 3 1/2 hours and involves guiding your civilization through various eras. Helping them learn new Technology and develop Art and Religion and Warfare. I think what appeals to me in this game more than some of the others I have played is that it feels a bit more like multi-player solitaire than a pitched battle. Yes you can attack other players, but that is not the central theme of the game. Each turn I am trying to discern how to maximize my civilization given the various options presented to me.

It's strange, I like Sticheln because it features a lot of 'mess with your opponent' opportunities while I like Through the Ages because it doesn't!

March Board Game Results

28 games played in March, 18 different games.


Here are the highlights.

Top, once more is the ever popular Werewolf with 5 plays. I love to run this game although I do enjoy playing it too. It seems to work well with a crowd and people seem to pick it up fairly quickly. Moderating takes a fair amount of concentration though :)

Animalia is a new game to me, but I've quickly logged 3 plays in March alone. Every player is an Impressario trying to put together the best possible troop of performing animals. The game play is like a simplified Medici (which is a game I love). Animalia takes similar concepts to Medici but does without the auction mechanic and simplifies the scoring a little. It's definitely a game that is a stepping stone to the superior Medici whilst still being a lot of fun in its own right.

Ta Yu is a very elegant abstract game. The theme is one of connecting water flowing from the center of the board, but that doesn't really impact game play. In the simplest version you draw a tile and then play it. Deciding whether to help yourself or hinder your opponent is the main challenge of this game. Unfortunately the original Kosmos version (pictured here) is no longer available and consequently sells for a lot of money. I have the not so pretty but still playable new version instead.

Haggis is a game from a small independent designer that one of the other players in our group was asked to play test. It feels a little similar to Tichu (a game I love), but is actually playable by 2 or more unlike Tichu which really requires 4 players. It's a fun game, though to be honest I'm having a little trouble remembering it now.

Hive makes a return appearance into the 'Most played list'. Ok so it was only 2 plays in March, but when you consider the large number of different games I play, any repeat is a good sign. (last year I managed 378 plays of 186 different games!). As I only received Hive just before Christmas, it didn't make it into the Quarters, Nickels and Dimes last year, but this year I've already played it 11 times! Will it get played enough to topple last years winner (Dominion with 22 plays)? It's definitely possible as I've only played Dominion 3 times so far in 2010.

Tune in again next month to see what game takes the lead :)