15 plays! That’s a record for me, though admittedly it’s really only 13 for the challenge, as two of them were going past 5 plays for Concordia. But still, that is on top of a bunch of other games played as well, including some more first time plays, which always feels good.
50 total plays on the challenge now. Halfway there, but over halfway through the year. Still, this is probably the best I have ever done with one of my challenges, at least at this point in the year.
Had a game night yesterday. Played War of Whispers, which I won by luck (I agree with SU&SD, it’s not great with 4 players… the board state got very crowded very quickly and we ran out of places to put Agents. Plus, it took way too long to realize that the Lion has only one attack action per turn, maximum, whereas the other factions have at least 2-3, and Bear has up to 4 I believe. Very significant. But fun! Next time we play with the “Put Agents on the Board” variation, and the “Dark Allegiances” optional rule.
We then played Cubitos (Rob won, but it was very close with Terry right on his tails and Eric short of the finish line by 1 space all of them WAY ahead of me) Coyote (I won), Skull (I won, and then Eric won the 2nd game), Illusion (Rob won), and then Project L (3 way tie for points, but Terry completed more tiles than either of us playing and so won), and then Dream Crush twice (and who cares who won because it’s definitely not a game about winning or losing!).
No new games this time around, but that’s okay! Was just super excited to get games on the table for the first time in, like… a year.
Azul done and dusted within the month, and was a definite hit. If the challenge was 100 plays of one game then it would be a shoo-in, with twenty more added to the KeyForge tally.
For the not yet played section, no new games were added to the collection for a change, mostly because extra KeyForge decks don’t count. Two from this category played: Azul, as mentioned; and Uwe’s Mamma Mia! Plus.
As expected and yet not as expected I finished my easy-mode dynamic 10x10 challenge. The unexpected part being that Roll for the Galaxy was kicked out by 10 games of my Tash Kalar revival played since June thanks to my relentless friend.
So now it‘s on to a new challenge: complete one without all the solo games. Roll will be back for that one I hope. So will Tash Kalar, Hardback, Pandemic Legacy, Die Crew, Rallyman, Beyond the Sun & Race. Calico, Railroad Ink and Sprawlopolis will be missing though. Maybe Spacebase & Splendor will make it in
No more Letter Tycoon, and I wouldn’t be surprised if I never play it again, except perhaps to work out a variant. Lemminge, Automobiles and VOLT all happen on yucata which I like a lot better than BGA. It very much looks as though I will make a 10×10 this year.
In the “easy mode” bracket I am done: Beyond the Sun, Calico, The Crew 2, Hardback, Pandemic Legacy 2, Race ftG, Railroad Ink Green, Rallyman GT, Sprawlopolis, Tash Kalar
In the “new to me” bracket of my challenges I am at:
Finished with: Beyond the Sun, Calico, Die Crew Mission Tiefsee, Hardback, Railroad Ink Challenge 10, Rallyman GT
Roll for the Galaxy 9/10
Scape Goat 7/10
Red Rising 6/10
Imperium Classics 5/10
In the “no solo games” category:
Finished with: Die Crew Tiefsee, Hardback, Pandemic Legacy 2, Rallyman GT, Tash Kalar, Beyond the Sun
Race for the Galaxy 8/10
Scape Goat 7/10
Space Base 5/10
Splendor 5/10
If I had chosen the games I would be playing this year in January…
Hey, managed to get a few more on the scoreboard… go team!
I attended a Star Wars Legion tournament and did middle-of-the-pack (6th out of 12), and got to play a friend’s painted copy of Infinity Defiance. The AI system in the game is simultaneously quite clever, and gods damnit the most obtuse way of doing that ever. I’m sure with repeated plays the icons will start to make sense, but gosh we struggled mightily against that mission and got our teeth kicked in.
Still, progress! I think I’m going to try and host another game night sometime in September, but classes are starting up again (I dropped one of my 2 courses for this semester because I suspect COVID brain is still going to be a big problem for my academics) so I don’t know how much free time I’m actually going to have.
I also attended a staff party… we traditionally have one after the big Christmas (c)Rush that happens every year as the bosses’ way of saying thanks, but obviously couldn’t hold a party last year. So we went and had a pool party at one of the owner’s homes (big pool and bar area). I played 3 or 4 games of Crokinole and got my teeth kicked in by the owners (who have played nigh-forever), and then a great game of Jungle Speed and Anomia, both of which were big hits. Last game for the evening was a short, fast game of Wavelength that was a joy to watch my colleagues and their partners play. That little spark when people realize “Oh shit, I’m having fun!” is amazing.
Still no luck here. We did play a few new games that I’ve picked up since January (specifically The Search for Planet X is is surprisingly clever, and two solo games: Warp’s Edge and Under Falling Skies). So I guess I’ve kept them from being added to 2022’s list? We’ll call that a win, I suppose.
Only five from the challenge played last month, bringing the total to 54 plays (I had an error on my last report, so only had 49 at that time). I’m finding it hard to get solo games to the table lately, as by the time we’ve got the kids to bed and gotten everything cleaned up for the next day, it’s already late and I just don’t feel up for getting something set up, playing for an hour or two, then pack it away and go to bed. Sometimes my wife and I will play something shorter, or just sit and watch a show for a bit. Occasionally I’ll play a video game instead.
Things are starting to get tricky with my challenge, as it’s hard to get “new” games to the table these days, moreso when some require three players minimum, and that’s virtually all that’s left now. Getting a single play of some of these would be a feat, and I’m aiming for 5 on some, so I don’t really expect to complete my challenge, but hope to get further along.
Very little progress this month, and not a lot of gaming in general either. Just a rough month all around. My hope for the rest of the year is to at least play each game in the 18x5 section once, and at least a few more of the 10x1 section.
I played a game of Star Trek Ascendancy! Woo! I lost! It was great!
Othe than that, I don’t think I played anything else on the list. I was supposed to attend a Legion tournament today but a colleague managed to get the day off before I had a chance to ask for it off (boo), but that’s okay. We played a few games of MicroMacro, a round of Welcome To…, and a game of Junk Art for the first time in nigh-forever. I think we’re going to finish our copy of MicroMacro soon and then lend it to a friend, and then maybe finish The Initiative after that.
Oh, and I want to schedule an Eclipse 2nd Dawn game for sometime this month. Maybe instead of Thanksgiving, since I doubt I’ll be seeing family around then.
Still no change here. Unlikely to change this month either, but hey, who knows? Stranger things have happened.
As for new games… I’ve played two sessions of Star Trek Adventures (the RPG by Modiphius). We’re now 2/3rds fo the way through the introductory campaign (“Far Beyond the Stars”, which is a really dumb name for the campaign). We’re playing via Discord, which isn’t ideal, but hey, what is ideal these days? The group is fun, albeit a little shy, but hopefully that will change as we play more. It’s a weird/fun experience to be GMing again… awakening old muscles for storytelling and roleplaying and ad-libbing is fun, but also exhausting. It’s basically performance for 4 hours straight, and while that is fun, gosh it takes a lot out of me these days… but some extent of that is working within the quite strictly defined lines of the campaign as it is written. I’m trying to encourage some lateral thinking and play in the group, because I tend to find that sort of stuff more fun rather than strictly defined stories, plus I don’t think the combat in ST:A is done super well (for example, it never really clarifies what the difference between “Lethal” and “Non-lethal” is… like, you have to choose one, I get that, but then do you still roll damage if you’re using “Lethal”? If you do, does the enemy still have “Resistance” against it? Anyway. The combat isn’t great, but it’s functional and it is neat.
It’s to get out of the habit of rolling D&D-style, though (“Roll for stea… wait, that’s not a thing. Okay, give me a Perception Che… oh, wait, no, that’s not a thing either.”). I like the non-reactionary nature of the game (tell what you want to do, rather than me feeding you information when you do/don’t do something), but it’s taking some getting used to.
I really should just sit down and read the whole rulebook. Tomorrow… Oh, I picked up a copy of Five Parsecs from Home, and I’m excited to read through that. I don’t know if/when I’ll actually play a game, but I certainly have enough minis for it…
But the 10x10 might be more of a pain because I replaced Battleline with Battleline: Medieval so I can’t finish that one and Mazescape I’ve done all the puzzles so I probably won’t play those again. I’ll probably have to just play some solo games to take their places but overall it’s good.
It seems September was more sad than splendid for my challenge, with just one play of Myrmes progressing the total.
The not yet played challenge also had a sizeable setback with an avalanche of incoming second hand purchases moving the target again.
Games in: Android: Infiltration; Calico; Elevenses; Friday; Lost in Straya; Michael Strogoff; Mystery Rummy: Jekyll & Hyde; Nova Luna; Parade; Skull; Valletta
Games played: Elevenses; Lost in Straya
Hope everyone’s October objectives are obtainable!
No progress on the original challenge of playing all the unplayed games, but we have played both Mariposas and Viticulture, which my husband bought last month.
In the new 2 me bracket I added just a single play of Roll for the Galaxy and I believe that was already in October so nothing in September.
And nothing else has changed. I started working for reals in September and now I am traveling so despite having brought a few games changes are minuscule.
Hope I‘ll manage a couple game nights sometime in October and play a few more games with my partner to fill out the remaining challenges.
Two from this category played: Azul, as mentioned; and Uwe’s Mamma Mia! Plus.
