2024 Board Game Challenges!

Boardgames
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Well, it’s almost 13 hours into 2024, and I think it’s high time that a new thread is created.

Back when I was a CA (Community Advisor… often called a “Don”), I was told that it took one year to make a tradition and ten years to try and get rid of it. I don’t know if this is a tradition that any of you look forward to… but I do, and a bunch of y’all contribute every month, so I figure… what the hell, let’s keep it going.

So! Last year I completed ten plays of six games, and I think that may be my best year ever. Certainly my best since 2019 without question.

I’d like to keep that going. So, with that in mind, I’m going to create a new 10x10 challenge, and I am pledging to stop buying new board games until I have both played all the games I own at least once and I have purged… I’m going to say 30 titles from my collection. I have just too many big box games, and it’s just not sustainable in so many ways.

So! The new 10x10:

Battletech
Star Wars Armada
Star Wars Legion
Oathsworn
Dune Imperium
Destinies
Heat
Descent
Twilight Imperium 4th Ed
King’s Dilemma

Games I own that I haven’t played yet:
Vindication, Newspeak, Sidereal Confluence (plus expansion), The Undercity, New Salem, Dune Conquest, Frosthaven, Star Wars Shatterpoint, Catacombs Co-op/Red, Anomaly

Huh, ten of those as well. Well, we’ll have to give them a stab, hopefully in the next month or two. A few of them have been on my unplayed pile long enough that I may just turf them rather than opening them (I honestly have no idea when I got Anomaly, but it’s still in shrink and it’s not a game I would buy myself… so… gift? Maybe?).

And I’ll list the games I sell/give away as I do so.

Gonna be a busy, interesting 2024 when it comes to games!

Happy New Year everyone, and I look forward to seeing all of your challenges as you declare and update them over the year!

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Unplayed list:

  • Assembly
  • Crossfire (KS bonus)
  • Freehand (demonstrator freebie)
  • Make It Happen (demonstrator freebie)
  • Newsboys
  • Path of Light and Shadow
  • Radlands (I owe someone a review of this!)
  • Riverside (demonstrator freebie)
  • Umbra Via

I’ll probably aim generally for a soft 10×10 as usual.

I’m giving Leonie’s 52 Game Challenge another try this year.

And I intend to get at least one of my vague game ideas to the point that there’s a set of rules and bits that I can give to other people for playtesting.

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I like the idea of board game challenges, especially to try to get to the table owned games that have never been played before or haven’t been played for a long time. But most of my plays are with my husband and he hates challenges. He says they just make him feel pressured and stressed out. So I don’t do challenges. I do enjoy following along with the updates from those of you who do them.

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I’ll be doing a 20x5 instead of a 10x10!

Game Plays
Cthulhu Wars 0
Dominant Species 0
Evolution 0
Feudum 0
Food Chain Magnate 0
Glory to Rome 0
Imperial/Imperial 2023 0
Impulse 0
Pax Renaissance 0
Pax Transhumanity 0
Ride the Rails 0
Irish Gauge 0
Santiago 0
Stephensons Rocket 0
Escape: Curse of the Temple 0
Yokai Septet 0
Nokosu Dice 0

That’s only 16 so far… Will add more

Through the Twenty Ages
0/10

And I’ll put Through the Ages table/app challenge again.

MicroMacro Challenge

  • Original
  • Full House
  • All-In
  • Showdown
  • Bonus Box
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I’ll do anothher two “soft” 10x10 one for solo and one for multiplayer.
I have hopes that my gaming will be a little more … this year than last.
I do want to also try and sell some games while keeping new acquisitions so that my shelves are still enough to fit everything. I especially want to curb my crowdfunding habit even more. I’ve been better at it this past year than previous ones, so maybe I’ll get over that. The huge number of update mails alone is a motivation to stay away.

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I feel like it is time I participate in one of these challenges too.

Though for me it will be a bit different or rather much different.

Last year I think I played a board game maybe 7-10 times. So not a lot at all. Just our life changed, our friends who we used to play a lot with (mostly Gloomhaven) got two kids and well my desire to play also kinda waned (sometimes my wife asked to play something only the two of us and I was kinda lukewarm on it). No idea why. So different factors coming together.
I want to change that a bit again.

I have a ton of unplayed games, some I own for years now. I would like to focus on them. So my first thought was a “play 10 unplayed games” challenge but I wonder if that’s the right move. 10 is a high number and new games (especially if more complex and most of my unplayed games are of that category) are an extra hurdle.
But having an hard to reach goal may be not too bad either.

I will think about it and talk with my wife. Maybe you have some suggestions too :slight_smile:

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For me, I always find timelines and dates to be motivating. If I need to have a novel done “at some point” I never write it, but if I need to have a novel written by October 2023 I’ll finish it by September.

My problem with my collection is that it’s so large I get overwhelmed every time I try to think about what I want to play. These challenges then are to remind me that there are specific games I want to get to the table, and so I can remind myself periodically “Oh, right, THAT game! We should play that!”

Maybe pick out 5 or 6 of your unplayed games you’d like to try, and then every time you play one, swap it out for a new one and keep track of the games you’ve played so you can see your progress? Or just pick 10 of them and try to play one a month?

There’s no wrong way to approach these sorts of things. It’s all in good fun, after all, and we’re here to support and encourage you! You got this!

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I’ve got my usual “play all unplayed games” challenge. This time with stretch goals!

Unplayed games:

  • Clash of Cultures
  • Cuba Libre
  • East India Companies
  • Expeditions
  • The Great Fire of London
  • Hanamikoji
  • Hipparchus
  • Imhotep
  • Imperial Steam
  • In a Grove
  • Lacrimosa
  • Loot
  • Mage Knight
  • Orléans
  • Passing Through Petra
  • Pendulum
  • Polarity
  • Ptolemy
  • Serenissima
  • Skoventyr
  • Trick of the Rails
  • Tsukuyumi: Full Moon Down
  • Twins
  • Wingspan Asia

Stretch goals (AKA all those historical war games that my husband keeps buying):

  • 1775: Rebellion
  • The Battles of Rhode Island and Newport
  • Flying Colours
  • Into the Woods: the Battle of Shiloh, April 6-7, 1862
  • Napoleon’s Imperium
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Buy fewer games, and sell more.

To this end, I’ve added a note to my phones app that has all the games I’m waiting on written down. There’s alreday eight on there. It’s a useful reminder that I already have games coming!

Ideally I’d like to have fewer games by years end.

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Likewise. More specifically on the buying front, I am aiming to stop buying games and expansions in batches, so that I actually get to play purchases quickly rather than wait a year to play them - or, often more, in the case of expansions.

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Mine is… similar:
Buy no games, and sell loads.

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Well I don’t have any x x n lists to share but I do have this delightful cartoon about traditions that you just reminded me of instead.

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I’m doing 3 challenges this year:

  1. A 10x3 of game I own and have played
  2. A 10x2 of games I own and haven’t played
  3. A 10x1 of gaming goals for the year

10 x 3 (Old):

  1. Evergreen
  2. Carpe Diem
  3. Castles of Burgundy
  4. Ginkgopolis
  5. Ultimate Railroads
  6. Cthulhu: Death May Die
  7. Sekigahara
  8. Endangered
  9. Meadow
  10. Nusfjord

10 x 2 (New):

  1. Grand Carnival
  2. Marrakesh
  3. Shakespeare
  4. GWT: NZ
  5. Alchemists
  6. Zhanguo: The First Empire
  7. Return to Dark Tower
  8. Massive Darkness 2
  9. Trekking through History
  10. La Granja

10 x 1 (Goals)

  1. Play a 4 player game of Barrage
  2. Play a 5 player game of El Grande
  3. Play the new Hemlock Vale Arkham Horror: LCG campaign
  4. Play a 5+ player game of Scythe
  5. Host Dune Day (watch Dune pt. 1, play Dune: Imperium, go see Dune pt. 2)
  6. Host a Blood on the Clocktower night
  7. Complete year 2 of my Frosthaven campaign
  8. Host a 5 player game of Alice is Missing
  9. Start an Undaunted: Stalingrad campaign
  10. Run a game of Detective: City of Angels
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I may make up a 10x10 or similar, but I am definitely going to challenge myself to this:

Play at least 2 unplayed games I own per month.

This would get at least 24 games off my shelf of shame.

And the usual “buy fewer games,” schtick that never seems to pan out. I do want to actually sell the games I have set aside for that purpose though. I will try to get that done this year. I just want more than my FLGS was willing to pay for them.

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Setting five challenges for this year. Time will tell whether this is overly or appropriately ambitious.

10x10 Challenge
10x10 from the following games. Like the Oscars, it’s a longlist at this stage (too hard to choose!) but will be narrowed down as time progresses.

  • A Feast for Odin
  • Anachrony Essential Edition
  • Arkham Horror: The Card Game
  • Black Angel
  • Concordia
  • Gaia Project
  • Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion
  • Imperium: Classics
  • Myrmes
  • Race for the Galaxy
  • Roll Player
  • Terraforming Mars
  • The Lord of the Rings Adventure Book Game
  • Too Many Bones

Opportunity 50 x 2 Challenge
Play 50 games or expansions twice that are unplayed or only played once. Must be already owned (or awaiting delivery, e.g. Kickstarters) as of today, buying and playing anything new doesn’t count.

KeyForge 100 Challenge
Play all of my Winds of Exchange decks and (if they are delivered with sufficient time, let’s say July) all Grim Reminders decks, and achieve 100 plays of these decks in any combination.

Netrunner 15 Challenge
Participate in 15 in-person Netrunner events.

Tekeli 20 Challenge
Post 20 times on the forum on topics other than this one.

Good luck with your challenges everyone!

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I forgot to add that I want to play all of my Splotter games this year:

Food Chain Magnate
The Great Zimbabwe
Antiquity

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Our FLGS started a challenge around here, 52 games in 52 weeks, the idea being, obviously, that you play 52 different games in a year. They have it so there’s a theme or mechanic that’s required every week. We tweaked it a bit, as some themes, like food, just aren’t represented in our collection.

Instead, we have decided that, every week, we’ll play (at least) one game, of our choosing. But over the course of the year, we want to have played:

4 new games
24 of our classics (our favourite, most-played games)
24 forgotten games (ones that have sorta fallen by the wayside)

So far, we’ve played:

Hit! (new)
Great Western Trail: New-Zealand (new)
Terraforming Mars (classic)
Quacks of Quedlinburg (forgotten)

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After January:

Game Plays
Sentinels of the Multiverse: Definitive Edition 4 (+4)
Rallyman: GT 3 (+3)
Nokosu Dice 2 (+2)
Project L 2 (+2)
Rallyman 2 (+2)
Tinderblox 2 (+2)
Trio 2 (+2)
Xia: Legends of a Drift System 2 (+2)

I’d love to get in ten Xias…

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Well. I don’t think I expected to finish King’s Dilemma this month, but here we are! Technically, I think it may have been 9 plays, rather than the full 10, but the game is finished so I’m calling it finished. The ending was good-ish, but couldn’t live up to the momentum of the game, and does in a few ways make future playthroughs unappealing. Ah well, still had a very good time with it.

Other than that, just one game of Legion for the chart this month. My first 300pt game, and I got my teeth kicked in trying Rebels for the first time. It wasn’t a good or balanced list and my buddy basically just shot me off the table (I have previously always played Clones, and they hit harder but, more importantly, have much better armour, meaning I could be a bit more careless with them), but I had a lot of fun with it. Next time I visit I think we’re going to try and play some board games, so February will probably be light on miniature wargames.

Didn’t add any games to the collection this month, but likewise didn’t play any of the unplayed stuff. Did start the cull, and have committed to cutting 50 games out of my collection for a March game sale the local gaming group is running. Some of the Unplayed games might get cut before I get them on the table, but then again, there’s nothing saying that all 50 will sell, even if I set the price pretty dang low.

I guess we’ll see!

Happy gaming, everyone!

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I’ll be doing a 20x5 instead of a 10x10! - 18/100 done!

Game Plays
Brass Birmingham 1
Brass Lancashire 4
Cthulhu Wars 1
Dominant Species 0
Escape: Curse of the Temple 0
Evolution 0
Feudum 0
Food Chain Magnate 2
Glory to Rome 1
Imperial/Imperial 2023 0
Impulse 0
MarraCash 0
Nokosu Dice 3
Pax Renaissance 3
Pax Transhumanity 1
Ride the Rails 0
Irish Gauge 0
Santiago 0
Stephensons Rocket 1
Yokai Septet 1

That’s 20 now!

Through the Twenty Ages - app plays included because…
2/10

MicroMacro Challenge - 1/4 done

  • Original
  • Full House
  • All-In
  • Showdown
  • Bonus Box
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