According to my records, long enough to play between 15 and 30 games.
3 Likes
February was a really good month for gaming due to the simple fact that I actually invited 2 people over to play games, and my partner has been feeling more grounded and wants to put games on the table. Both very positive steps!
HEAT continues to be a joy, and I’m enjoying the ever-deeper rabbit hole that Battletech represents. I just learned about “Mech Quirks,” which make many mechs slightly different from their rote loadouts might suggest (for example, the Locust has the quirk “Low Profile,” which means that if it is hit but only by 1 (so if the target number is 8+ and an 8 or 9 is rolled to hit) they only take half damage! That’s really cool! And some mechs have negative quirks that make them a little cheaper… anyway, layers upon layers). The next task for Battletech is to come up with a good campaign system I can play with my buddies. Scenarios are definitely necessary, but linking those scenarios together is the dream.
Oathsworn continues to impress. We played Gravwell again, which is great, but not as great as HEAT, and we played Furnace and… oh, all sorts of lovely stuff. Good month.
Woo! Finally played Tyrants! And is good! That’s a relief. Really enjoyed it, despite the artistic choices. Almost got Dune Conquest on the table but we decided to play Dune Imperium instead, and I don’t regret that. Is also good.
Also played Furnace enough to confirm that, while I like it, Andy doesn’t, and my buddy was happy to take it off my hands. I’ll miss it, but at least it’s still in the circle?
Nine “unplayed” games in my collection is pretty okay, honestly. I’m okay with that. And I’m okay with not buying more for now. So, that’s nice.
6 Likes
No purchases in Feb, and a fair crack at getting more plays in. Ginkgopolis looks like a new favourite, though Agricola was less well received by my wife (I accidentally annihilated her) and my most prolific gamer friend (he was on the whisky and repeatedly forgot several rules when it suited him, then got grumpy).
4 Likes
End of March
10x5 (38% complete - ahead of schedule)
| Game | Plays |
|---|---|
| Bus | 1 |
| Chicago Express | 0 |
| Cthulhu Wars | 1 |
| Food Chain Magnate | 5 
|
| Glory to Rome | 2 |
| The Great Zimbabwe | 2 |
| Indonesia | 1 |
| Innovation | 3 |
| Mottainai | 1 |
| Pax Renaissance | 3 |
Go 365 Challenge
0/365
Race for the Hundred Galaxies
4/100
Through the Twenty Ages
1/20
ADDED - Five Carriages But No Horses
Horseless Carriage 2/5
Unlock Scenarios:
24 scenarios left
Levee En Masse
Beat Pandemic Rising Tide on highest difficulty
Spanish Boo-Boo
Beat Pandemic Iberia on highest difficulty with the advance variant
Ark-cough Horror
Beat Pandemic Cthulhu on highest difficulty
8 Likes
The state of my solo challenge is as follows:
- 9/10 Agropolis
- 8/10 Cascadia
- 8/10 Turing Machine
- 6/10 51st State
- 3/10 Distilled
- 3/10 Evergreen
- 3/10 Food Chain Island
- 3/10 Orange Burger Canal
- 3/10 Revive (kicked out Three Sisters)
- 2/10 Ark Nova
I am happy that I am getting a lot of big games played but I doubt I will actually play all of those solo that much until the end of the year. On the other hand those solo modes are all excellent and quite different from each other.
I think Distilled is the one I‘ll most likely not finish as the solos were more a „learning the game“ thing to prepare for teaching the game to my friends. On the other hand the solo is good and reasonably fast.
These are all quite fast. None of these is the kind of game you couldn‘t fit in after dinner. None need a whole Sunday afternoon 
PS: I know I know, where is Spirit Island? It will appear I am sure. So far though I have all these new things to try. But something will get kicked out by Spirit Island eventually.
7 Likes
Play at least once:
Antiquity
Escape Plan
Yokohama
Troyes
Tzolk’in: The Mayan Calendar
Gaia Project
Escape from the Aliens in Outer Space
Scythe
Tiny Epic Dinosaurs
Oath: Chronicles of Empire and Exile
Food Chain Magnate
The Great Zimbabwe
Teotihuacan: City of Gods
The Taverns of Tiefenthal
Root
SHASN
Burano
Sidereal Confluence:
Mottainai
On Mars
Altiplano
New York 1901
Quadropolis
Bosk
Fields of Green
Awkward Guests
Bärenpark
Forks
Import / Export: Definitive Edition
Caverna: The Cave Farmers
TOKYO METRO
Pipeline
Play all my unplayed games:
1775: Rebellion
Airship City
Canopy
Cloud City
Concordia
The Crew 2
Flying Colours
Ginkgopolis
The Great Fire of London 1666
IKI
Imhotep
In a Grove
Inkling
John Company 2E
Kodachi
Loot
Napolean’s Imperium
Pendulum
Polarity
Super-skill Pinball: Ramp it Up!
Tsukuyumi: Full Moon Down
Twins
It’s all Airecon’s fault:
High Society
Sub Terra 2
East India Co.s
Lacrimosa
Scout
That Time You Killed Me
String Railway
A Fake Artist Goes to New York
Cat in the Box
7 Likes
10×10-ish:
| Game | Plays |
|---|---|
| Rallyman: GT | 8 (+3) |
| Sentinels of the Multiverse: Definitive Edition | 8 (+4) |
| Tsuro | 5 |
| Xia: Legends of a Drift System | 5 (+1) |
| Flash Point: Fire Rescue | 4 |
| Heat: Pedal to the Metal | 4 (+1) |
| Just One | 4 (+2) |
| The Climbers | 4 (+3) |
| Air, Land, & Sea: Spies, Lies, & Supplies | 3 (+3) |
| Rallyman | 3 (+1) |
| SCOUT | 3 (+1) |
| Timeline: Events | 3 |
| Turncoats | 3 |
| VOLT | 3 |
Rallyman, GT, Dirt and Sentinels of the Multiverse will all reach 10 because of challenges. I don’t take Tsuro out much these days, but seeing Tsuro of the Seas has encouraged me to play the original more.
6 Likes
This month is a bit below last year’s play rate
But the streak is still going
Good progress on goals
10*10 going well too
The recent purge has got rid of lots, but the profits have been reinvested!
Ins and outs in march (owned Vs prev. Owned). This is too many. I have a problem.
6 Likes
A pretty good month for gaming, all things considered. Andy continues to be enthusiastic about Descent Legends of the Dark (and I’m excited they announced Act II!), so we’ve played a whole bunch of that, and I managed to arrange a few more online games of Battletech, which continues to impress with both its depth and its cleverness.
Also, I have thrown $500 at the KS for the new stompy robots (and tanks!). But my first KS in a year (possibly more?), so whatever.
Other than that, we’ve played a bunch of Scout, a few games of The Fuzzies, and a couple games of Dune Imperium (which I continue to believe is weaker than Lost Ruins, but gosh I love the theme).
Oh yeah, we also played String Railways! I loved it, but Andy and Adam weren’t as crazy about it… so I think it’ll have to move back out of the collection. Need that space.
I picked up a couple new games that I would like to play sometime (I mean… obviously I want to play the games I buy…), but I have a big assignment due Tuesday morning that I have to finish, and then a big final paper due on the 10th, and then an exam on the 19th. So… maybe mid-month? I will probably see if I can take a few days off sometime in May, get some writing done to catch up my novel work to where I want to be.
I got a pile of money back from the government… on the one hand, yay getting taxes back, on the other hand this means that I make so little money that the government is returning lots to try and bring me up to the poverty line (Andy makes almost enough for both of us, so I’m poor but not destitute). The recreational spending for the next few months is all going to that Battletech KS, so I don’t think I’ll be adding too many other games to the collection this year.
6 Likes
March Results
? X ? = 100 Challenge
| Game | Month | Total |
|---|---|---|
| Wingspan | 7 | 10 |
| Dune: Imperium | - | 3 |
| MicroMacro: Crime City | - | 2 |
| Legendary Encounters: An Alien Deck Building Game | - | 2 |
| Alchemists | - | 1 |
| Radlands | - | 1 |
| Terraforming Mars | - | 1 |
| The Isle of Cats | - | 1 |
| Total | 7 | 21 |
A flurry of Wingspan only.
Keyforge 4 x 25 Challenge
| Deck | Month | Total |
|---|---|---|
| Unruly “The Wiper” Dmitrii | 3 | 7 |
| Total | 3 | 7 |
Modest progress.
Opportunity 50 x 2
| Game | Month | Total | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Fuzzies | - | [7/2] |  |
| Grove: A 9 card solitaire game | - | [4/2] | |
| Dune: Imperium | - | [3/2] | |
| 7 Wonders Duel | 2 | [2/2] | |
| Legendary Encounters: An Alien Deck Building Game | - | [2/2] | |
| MicroMacro: Crime City | - | [2/2] | |
| Tiny Towns | - | [2/2] | |
| Terraforming Mars | - | [1/2] | |
| Mint Delivery | - | [1/2] | |
| Pluckin’ Pairs | - | [1/2] | |
| Progress | 17% |
Chipping away…
Have an astronomical April of games everyone!
5 Likes
April Results
? X ? = 100 Challenge
| Game | Month | Total | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wingspan | 1 | [11/10] | |
| Dune: Imperium | - | [3] | |
| Baseball Highlights: 2045 | 2 | [2] | |
| Biblios | 2 | [2] | |
| MicroMacro: Crime City | - | [2] | |
| Legendary Encounters: An Alien Deck Building Game | - | [2] | |
| Alchemists | - | [1] | |
| Radlands | - | [1] | |
| Terraforming Mars | - | [1] | |
| The Isle of Cats | - | [1] | |
| Total | 4 | 25 |
Books and baseball off the mark.
Keyforge 4 x 25 Challenge
| Deck | Month | Total |
|---|---|---|
| Unruly “The Wiper” Dmitrii | 7 | 14 |
| Total | 4 | 14 |
Getting the hang of Dmitrii, and loving it when the Ganger Chieftan - Drummernaut combo comes off.
Opportunity 50 x 2
| Game | Month | Total | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Fuzzies | - | [7/2] | |
| Illiterati | 4 | [4/2] | |
| Grove: A 9 card solitaire game | - | [4/2] | |
| Dune: Imperium | - | [3/2] | |
| Baseball Highlights: 2045 | 2 | [2/2] | |
| Sunset Over Water | 2 | [2/2] | |
| 7 Wonders Duel | - | [2/2] | |
| Legendary Encounters: An Alien Deck Building Game | - | [2/2] | |
| MicroMacro: Crime City | - | [2/2] | |
| Tiny Towns | - | [2/2] | |
| Champions of Midgard | 1 | [1/2] | |
| Mystery Rummy: Jekyll & Hyde | 1 | [1/2] | |
| Punto | 1 | [1/2] | |
| Terraforming Mars | - | [1/2] | |
| Mint Delivery | - | [1/2] | |
| Pluckin’ Pairs | - | [1/2] | |
| Progress | 26% |
Good progress on opportunities for the month, but a little behind overall.
Have a mighty May everyone!
6 Likes
| Game | Plays |
|---|---|
| Rallyman: GT | 11 (+3) |
| Sentinels of the Multiverse: Definitive Edition | 10 (+2) |
| Werewords | 7 (+7) |
| Crokinole | 6 (+4) |
| Project L | 6 (+4) |
| Hanamikoji | 5 (+4) |
| Rallyman | 5 (+2) |
| Tsuro | 5 |
| Xia: Legends of a Drift System | 5 |
| Flash Point: Fire Rescue | 4 |
| Heat: Pedal to the Metal | 4 |
| Just One | 4 |
| Rallyman: DIRT | 4 (+2) |
| SCOUT | 4 (+1) |
| The Climbers | 4 |
but I doubt I’ll play Werewords again. Need more Crokinole in my life.
4 Likes
I played a bunch of games in April but apparently only 4 solos.
- 1 Cascadia
- 1 Sprawlopolis
- 2 Legacy of Yu
I had a bit more social opportunities than most months with a game night at our friends, a friend coming over to play Revive with me, spending a week-end with friends gaming and also my partner being interested in Frosthaven quite a bit. So this month I’ll post my progress for the multiplayer challenge that is arising from my plays and current state is like this:
- Frosthaven 8/10
- Hardback 7/10
- Tash Kalar 3/10
- Ark Nova 3/10
- Just One 3/10
- Camel Up 2/10
- Crash Octopus 2/10
- Distilled 2/10
- Revive 2/10 (this also features on my solo list with different plays obviously)
- Space Base 2/10
5 Likes
Hey, finished my 10th play of Descent! Great game, really enjoying every playthrough, and the campaign isn’t done yet! It’s definitely getting close, though… my only complaint so far is that there has been a notable lack of side-quests. Lots of main quests… anyway, small issue. The game is great.
Battletech continues to impress with the variety and depth of rules. Not all the rules are good, mind you, but gosh there are a lot of options that you can add if you want. Our next playthrough (I’m hoping in a week) we’re going to start a small campaign that I wrote up using modified rules from the Alpha Strike campaign ruleset. I’m excited! I have no idea if it will work, but Eric seems excited to try it out. And I put a fair amount of time into coming up with a backstory (Lady Arano meets Prince Hanse Davion and suggests that he hire some of her house Mercenaries to protect a world exposed by his Operation Galahad in her hunt for Espinosa deserters, while at the same time Eric’s Draconis Combine company decides to strike at a world that’s been exposed by that same military exercise… the amount of lore in BT can be a little overwhelming at times, but I think I managed to get it in the right time, location, and people that it fits seamlessly). It’s a 3-mission campaign, so that will get BT pretty close.
Also played a few games of Scout, which continues to be great, a game of Deep Sea Adventure, a few rounds of Arboretum for the first time in years, and some quick games of The Yawning Portal, Gravwell, Clip Cut Parks, and Cryo. Oh, and a few games of El Dorado, which although Andy doesn’t love, she likes it enough to play again.
I need to decide what I’m going to add to the list since Descent 3rd Ed is coming off… maybe Beyond the Sun or Dune Imperium?.. I just got the new Beyond the Sun expansion, so I think it’ll be that one. On the list it goes!
So I actually played two sessions of Starforged, although I’m still doing worldbuilding rather than adventures. But that’s okay, character and worldbuilding are both important parts of the game. My character is named Evelyn, and she is a Firebrand - Explorer in a galaxy where three major churches via for the remnants of human civilization in the aftermath of an invasion of “The Devouring Worlds” in the Milky Way (gas-giant sized automatons that consumed planets, seemingly without rhyme or reason. As the final human ships fled the galaxy, there were over one thousand of the gargantuan world-ships spreading slowly outwards from the galactic core). Each of the three churches claim the Devouring Worlds appeared for a different reason: the Church of the Holy Path (“Pathies”) believe that they were sent by god(s), and humanity’s purpose in the new galaxy was to forge a path for them to follow to eventually consume this galaxy as well, the Center Way (“Wayists”) are those that believe they are a punishment for our pride and that we must forgo technology and be as unnoticeable as possible to avoid their wrath, and The Warborn (“Nutjobs”) who believe that it is our duty to find a way to destroy the Devouring Worlds when they arrive. Etc… etc…
I funded the BT Kickstarter for $900CAD (“too much”), but I’m looking forward to getting those stompy robots eventually, and a buddy decided to donate his Rebel Army for Star Wars Legion to me, and I’ve been chipping away at painting them (I have finished 2 Cassian Andors, 2 K-2SOs, a second Clan Wren, a unit of Fleet Troopers, and I think I’m going to tackle the two units of Rebel Troopers I have next… that will leave me with 3 units of Veterans, 2 Pizza Cannons, 2 units of Tauntauns, an AT-RT, another unit (my 4th) of Wookies, a Rebel Speeder, and a T-47… oh, and 2 Leias, another Jyn, and 2 more Lukes to go).
As for new games… I don’t think I’ve picked up any in the last month. A few more expansions for Rallyman GT, the new Beyond the Sun expansion… but that might be it. There’s a lot of neat stuff coming down the pipe, as always, but I need to be really tight with my spending.
5 Likes
End of April
10x5 (42% complete - ahead of schedule)
| Game | Plays |
|---|---|
| (ADDED) The Estates | 1 |
| Chicago Express | 0 |
| Cthulhu Wars | 2 |
| Food Chain Magnate | 5
|
| Glory to Rome | 2 |
| The Great Zimbabwe | 2 |
| Indonesia | 1 |
| Innovation | 3 |
| Mottainai | 2 |
| Pax Renaissance | 3 |
Removed
| Game | Reason |
|---|---|
| Bus | Sold the game for silly money and reprint is unofficially announced |
Go 365 Challenge
0/365
Race for the Hundred Galaxies
4/100
Through the Twenty Ages
1/20
Five Carriages But No Horses
Horseless Carriage 2/5
Unlock Scenarios:
24 scenarios left
Levee En Masse - DONE
Beat Pandemic Rising Tide on highest difficulty
Spanish Boo-Boo
Beat Pandemic Iberia on highest difficulty with the advance variant
Ark-cough Horror
Beat Pandemic Cthulhu on highest difficulty
Comments:
rather slow month. I was more focused on trying to trim down my pile of shame and my “collection”. I did made great progress in this one.
6 Likes
| Game | Plays |
|---|---|
| Rallyman: GT | 13 (+2) |
| Sentinels of the Multiverse: Definitive Edition | 12 (+2) |
| Project L | 7 (+1) |
| Werewords | 7 |
| Crokinole | 6 |
| Rallyman: DIRT | 6 (+2) |
| Hanamikoji | 5 |
| Just One | 5 (+1) |
| Piepmatz | 5 (+2) |
| Rallyman | 5 |
| Tsuro | 5 |
| Xia: Legends of a Drift System | 5 |
At this point I’ve done a 6×6 or a 12×5.
8 Likes
You know, this year’s challenge has been going a lot better than the last 2 or 3 year’s. For some reason. Can’t imagine why.
With five months down, I have done 44 plays (approximately) of the 100 that I’m aiming for. That’s actually pretty good… exceptional by my usual standards. Now, this is technically “my” halfway point for the year because December is a freakin’ write-off, but that’s okay! I’m making good time, and enjoying it a lot!
I continue to enjoy HEAT more than the people I play with seem to. And that’s unfortunate, because I really like it. My D&D group cancelled twice in May because our monk moved house, and I don’t know when I’ll get enough people together for a game of TI, but I’ve never let that stop me before.
I’m playing a borrowed copy of Merchant of Venus in a week, and I’m looking forward to that a tonne. It was a Grail Game for me for a long time, and considering how staggeringly out-of-print it is I’m hoping that this one playthrough will cure me of that. There are two game-modes in the box (Classic and Revised), but I expect it to be long, weird, and archaic in design. We will see!
The Battletech Kickstarter ended up “only” costing me about $700CAD, so that was a nice surprise in the “I thought I spent more on this”, but the trade-off is that I’m spending the difference on Star Wars Shatterpoint in the insane hopes that it will be bad. I know, I know… but I love Star Wars minis, and Ahsoka Tano is my 2nd favourite force-user of all time (I still like Rey more, but she’s had movies, and Ahsoka was almost exclusively animated until very recently!), and Shatterpoint core box comes with two Ahsokas if you get the preorder bonus (which, of course, I did). So I was definitely going to buy it. But my hope is that it’s not very good so I don’t feel the need to get any more of it (and, thankfully, I have no interest in any of the squad boxes they’ve released thus far, saving me another $100, and I don’t really care about the terrain, although if it works for Star Wars Legion I may end up picking up one more).
Anyway. One new game on the list for the month is okay by me. I don’t think there’s anything else on the horizon that I “need” to pick up, and I’ve definitely overspent my recreational budget for the year already, so that’s probably for the best.
4 Likes
Can you get a sense for what your partners dislike about heat? From my perspective the reviewers universally loved it but it was a clunker for us. If I were to put my finger on it I think there are three points which kills it for us.
-
the seven stages to move a spot is way too stuttery to feel satisfying to move a race car.
-
it felt like the move was obvious
-
at two players it just doesn’t feel that hectic even with the robots.
2 Likes