2024 Board Game Challenges!

Woo! Four (FOUR!) games of Twilight Imperium in September… only finished 1, but we came dang close the other three times… I am actually playing again tonight, so October is off to a mighty fine start!

As for other games… a few plays of some light After-TI titles that went over quite well (Condotierre, Team 3, Incan Gold/Diamant), plus a few mid-weights (Terraforming Mars, which was the first time I’ve put that on the table all year, for example…).

I’m hoping to get a few more games of Battletech in October, but that will depend on my buddy in London and how he’s adjusting to his third son. We shall see, we shall see… either way I’m finished up with the big Dystopian Wars commission I had to paint aside from 400 turrets that I need to come up with some clever (FAST) way to paint them so they look okay but doesn’t take more than a few minutes per turret (I’m not exaggerating… hundreds of them), and then I can paint up all my Battletech models, and then… I have a different commission to work on. But one step at a time!

Grabbed a French copy of Nekojima (still not available in English, tragically), might play that tonight, but did manage to get Undaunted 2200: Callisto on the table… twice, one solo and one two-player. Solid acquisition, that, and I am looking forward to playing it again.

This month Ito is supposed to come in, and maybe Ascending Empires, although I’m not holding my breath on that one.

Have a great October of gaming, everyone!

4 Likes

September Results

10 X 10 Challenge

Game Month Total Status
The Lord of the Rings Adventure Book Game 5 [23/10]
Roll Player 10 [10/10]
Black Angel 1 [4.9/10]
Race for the Galaxy - [4/10]
Terraforming Mars 2 [3/10]
Concordia - [2/10]
Arkham Horror: The Card Game - [1/10]
Imperium: Classics - [1/10]
Total 13 35.9

Another good month, may yet claw up to a pass mark for the year.

Opportunity 50 x 2 Challenge

Game Month Total Status
Android: Mainframe - [2/2] :white_check_mark:
Arkham Horror: The Card Game - [1/2]
Au Griffon Fonffon 1 [2/2] :white_check_mark:
Black Angel 1 [4.9/2] :white_check_mark:
Concordia - [2/2] :white_check_mark:
Elevenses - [1/2]
For Northwood! A Solo Trick-Taking Game - [2/2] :white_check_mark:
The Gardens - [4/2] :white_check_mark:
Give it to the King! - [1/2] SOLD
The Hunger - [2/2] :white_check_mark:
Imperium: Classics - [1/2]
Keyforge Adventures: Fall of the House Gormangeist - [2/2] :white_check_mark:
The Lord of the Rings Adventure Book Game 5 [23/2] :white_check_mark:
Lost Ruins of Arnak - [1/2]
Mint Works - [2/2] :white_check_mark:
Mykerinos - [2/2] :white_check_mark:
Oh My Goods!: Longsdale in Revolt - [2/2] :white_check_mark:
Queendomino - [1/2]
Race for the Galaxy - [3/2] :white_check_mark:
Race for the Galaxy - The Gathering Storm expansion - [1/2]
Roll Player 10 [10/2] :white_check_mark:
搜索 (Scout - One More Game! Edition) - [2/2] :white_check_mark:
Sprawlopolis - Points of Interest expansion - [2/2] :white_check_mark:
Sprawlopolis - Wrecktar expansion) - [2/2] :white_check_mark:
Under Falling Skies - [2/2] :white_check_mark:
Villages of Valeria - [1/2]
Progress 43%

Not the focus this month, but still a slight increase.

KeyForge Grim WoE 100 Challenge

Set Deck Month Total
WoE Alarming “Megavolt” Hayk 5 11
WoE Finally Educated Órækja 1 9
WoE Poole of Saliseat - 9
WoE Rumpleadder, the “Protector” of Curses - 2
WoE [deck name redacted] - 6
GR Arrowshadow, Spawn of Superval - 17
GR Bourdet, Mauallan’s Conqueror - 4
GR Gasga, the Cobbler of the Tower - 9
GR LumiluLibrarian, the “Traitor” of the Past - 3
GR Nextikaod, the Footman of The South - 3
GR Saint-Germain of Saurtonne - 1
GR The Stingily Sagacious Thinker of Lydseat 5 5
Progress 12 of 31 decks played [79/100] plays

Looking good for the play count, but the deck aspect is proving more challenging.

Netrunner 15 Challenge

[+3 = 9/15]

Made it to the fortnightly causal play sessions, as well as the Nationals. Loving my Criminal runner deck, but my corp deck needs some work.

Tekeli 20 Challenge

[+5 = 13/20]

Have an on-point October of gaming everyone!

5 Likes

I’ll be doing a 20x5 instead of a 10x10! - 69/100 done!

Game Plays
Age of Innovation 6 :partying_face::partying_face::partying_face:
Brass Birmingham 5 :partying_face::partying_face::partying_face:
Brass Lancashire 5 :partying_face::partying_face::partying_face:
Cascadero 5 :partying_face::partying_face::partying_face:
Cthulhu Wars 4
Dominant Species 1
Escape: Curse of the Temple 2
Evolution 1
Feudum 0
Food Chain Magnate 5 :partying_face::partying_face::partying_face:
Glory to Rome 5 :partying_face::partying_face::partying_face:
Imperial/Imperial 2023 5 :partying_face::partying_face::partying_face:
Impulse 3
Irish Gauge 1
MarraCash 2
Nokosu Dice 6 :partying_face::partying_face::partying_face:
Pax Renaissance 10 :partying_face::partying_face::partying_face:
Pax Transhumanity 5 :partying_face::partying_face::partying_face:
Ride the Rails 1
Stephensons Rocket 5 :partying_face::partying_face::partying_face:

Through the Twenty Ages - app plays included because…
8/10

Abandoned 10 plays of Huang - 3/10

MicroMacro Challenge - 1/4 done

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

NOTE: I’m no longer interested on completing the 20x5 challenge. I’m gonna focus solely on culling and playing my Essen SPIEL haul and a dollop of trick-taking card games that I have accumulated this year and the previous one.

I’m still glad with the results. It was good progress to achieve 69 (nice) out of 100 in 10 months.

I am still keen on continuing with the MicroMacro progress and my 10 plays of TTA

7 Likes
Game Plays
Rallyman: GT 30 (+2)
Sentinels of the Multiverse: Definitive Edition 21 (+1)
Terraforming Mars: The Dice Game 19 (+17)
Imperium: Horizons 17 (+2)
Sea Salt & Paper 16 (+6)
Kabuto Sumo 15 (+3)
Flash Point: Fire Rescue 14 (+10)
Rallyman: DIRT 12 (+1)
Nokosu Dice 10 (+1)
Project L 10

I have achieved 10×10!

Looking at my other challenges, I’ve got two of my unplayed games played, and got nowhere on turning a game idea into a playable game. But I have cleaned up the games room.

7 Likes

October was a busy month! One game of Twilight Imperium which we actually finished (The Nekro Virus are really powerful if you let them steal everyone’s technology!), and then a demo game of Battletech. I have another game of Battletech scheduled for Sunday, so November is starting out strong.

Managed to get two games of Forbidden Stars in, one which I was trounced completely, and the second which I managed to win very handily (and somewhat unfairly… one of the players had to drop halfway through turn one, and rather than start everything over I just shrunk the galaxy, but correspondingly I had a couple objectives that were very close to me. No malice, but I should’ve spent a bit more time ensuring the distribution was even).

Other than that, played a couple games of Undaunted 2200, which I continue to enjoy, and a few small 2-player games that I love (Hanamikoji, Air Land & Sea, Jaipur, Patchwork…). Oh, and I tried out the Slay the Spire board game, which I think is fine, but I’m not blown away by it. It’s fine. It does a good job of making the video game multiplayer, and I think that’s neat.

Put Nekojima on the table a few times, and it’s good, simple fun. Managed to win a Co-op version of it, too, on our second try… I think it’s a bit more fun competitively, but the co-op version is neat.

Also picked up the Mass Effect Board Game, which I think is pretty solid. Very Action-Adventure as opposed to “true” RPG, but it’s quick and you feel powerful and the writing and theme are on point. The current hate-reviewing of it has caused me some issues… I know that the 1s are all idiots being idiots, but I don’t know how you “fix” that? Whatever, I know it’s good, and I’m happy to talk to customers at the store about why it’s good. Also, great price point on it… I hope they release an expansion or two soon, because a few more scenarios and a handful of additional heroes would be great!

Oh! Oh! Maybe they could release a Mass Effect Andromeda board game and actually do something good with that setting! Because the potential in ME:A was fantastic, but they did not deliver on that… and I say that as somebody who quite enjoyed ME:A, but yeah, it was a mess from a Writing Perspective.

Oh, and no Ito or Ascending Empires yet. No surprise.

Have a great November, everyone!

6 Likes

No change again this month. Wife is still recovering. Once again was hoping to solo something, but never managed. Mostly due to being distracted by my new Meta Quest 3S and Batman: Arkham Shadow :slight_smile:

Sitting at:
January - 2/2
February - 2/2
March - 1/2
April - 0/2
May - 0/2
June - 1/2
July - 3/2
August - 0/2
September - 0/2
October - 0/2

Maybe something can happen Thanksgiving weekend to get at least one new thing played.

4 Likes

October Results

10 X 10 Challenge

Game Month Total Status
The Lord of the Rings Adventure Book Game - [23/10]
Roll Player - [10/10]
Race for the Galaxy 2 [6/10]
Black Angel - [4.9/10]
Terraforming Mars 1 [4/10]
Concordia - [2/10]
Arkham Horror: The Card Game - [1/10]
Imperium: Classics - [1/10]
Total 3 38.9

Little by little. Think I finally have the rules for Race for the Galaxy under control, but yet to solve the mystery of why it is so popular.

Opportunity 50 x 2 Challenge

Game Month Total Status
Android: Mainframe - [2/2] :white_check_mark:
Arkham Horror: The Card Game - [1/2]
Au Griffon fonffon - [2/2] :white_check_mark:
Black Angel - [4.9/2] :white_check_mark:
Concordia - [2/2] :white_check_mark:
Elevenses - [1/2]
For Northwood! A Solo Trick-Taking Game - [2/2] :white_check_mark:
The Gardens - [4/2] :white_check_mark:
Give it to the King! - [1/2] SOLD
The Hunger - [2/2] :white_check_mark:
Imperium: Classics - [1/2]
Keyforge Adventures: Fall of the House Gormangeist - [2/2] :white_check_mark:
The Lord of the Rings Adventure Book Game - [23/2] :white_check_mark:
Lords of Vegas 1 [1/2]
Lost Ruins of Arnak - [1/2]
Mint Works - [2/2] :white_check_mark:
Mykerinos - [2/2] :white_check_mark:
Oh My Goods!: Longsdale in Revolt - [2/2] :white_check_mark:
Queendomino - [1/2]
Race for the Galaxy 2 [5/2] :white_check_mark:
Race for the Galaxy - The Gathering Storm expansion - [1/2]
Rewild 3 [3/3]
Roll Player - [10/2] :white_check_mark:
搜索 (Scout - One More Game! Edition) - [2/2] :white_check_mark:
Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective 2 [2/2] :white_check_mark:
Sprawlopolis - Points of Interest expansion - [2/2] :white_check_mark:
Sprawlopolis - Wrecktar expansion) - [2/2] :white_check_mark:
Under Falling Skies - [2/2] :white_check_mark:
Villages of Valeria - [1/2]
Progress 48%

Three very different new games off the shelf of opportunity with Lords of Vegas, Sherlock Holmes and Rewild. Enjoyed them all.

KeyForge Grim WoE 100 Challenge

Set Deck Month Total
WoE Alarming “Megavolt” Hayk - 11
WoE Finally Educated Órækja - 9
WoE Poole of Saliseat - 9
WoE Rumpleadder, the “Protector” of Curses - 2
WoE [deck name redacted] - 6
GR Arrowshadow, Spawn of Superval - 17
GR Bourdet, Mauallan’s Conqueror - 4
GR Gasga, the Cobbler of the Tower - 9
GR LumiluLibrarian, the “Traitor” of the Past - 3
GR Nextikaod, the Footman of The South - 3
GR Saint-Germain of Saurtonne - 1
GR The Stingily Sagacious Thinker of Lydseat 2 7
Progress 12 of 31 decks played [81/100] plays

Not much time for KeyForge in October, sadly.

Netrunner 15 Challenge

[+2 = 11/15]

Made it to a couple of meetups while travelling, which was fun.

Tekeli 20 Challenge
No change

Have nourishing November of gaming everyone!

5 Likes

Well, made a little progress this month.

January - 2/2
February - 2/2
March - 1/2
April - 0/2
May - 0/2
June - 1/2
July - 3/2
August - 0/2
September - 0/2
October - 0/2
November - 1/2

I was really hoping to get something new to the table over the holiday break, but we were just too busy and exhausted from wrangling the kids who have been off all week. We are down three iPads and two Amazon Fire Kids tablets, to give an idea of how rough the week was.

As long as I get two new games to the table, I will meet half my goal, which is pretty normal for the challenges I try each year

Happy December, everybody!

8 Likes
Game Plays
Rallyman: GT 34 (+4)
Sentinels of the Multiverse: Definitive Edition 22 (+1)
Sea Salt & Paper 20 (+4)
Imperium: Horizons 19 (+2)
Terraforming Mars: The Dice Game 19
Kabuto Sumo 15
Flash Point: Fire Rescue 14
Rallyman: DIRT 13 (+1)
Crokinole 12 (+10)
Nokosu Dice 11 (+1)
Project L 11 (+1)

So that’s an 11 × 11.

5 Likes

Well, as expected, November was mostly a wash. “Joys” of working a retail hobby shop over the holidays.

Still, Finally got another game of Armada in… first time this year, and gosh it’s still a great game. I’m really sad that they discontinued it… hopefully FFG picks it back up after this nonsense with Asmodee ends (although whether they survive is yet to be seen). And Battletech continues to be silly fun. The campaign I’m playing with my buddy Nick is going to see us push the Jade Falcons back into their dropships without losing any ground whatsoever… I think after this we might hold off on more Aces until they figure out (or publish) the Classic version of it. Alpha Strike is just a tad too fast. Still fun!

December should involve a few games of Arcs, 24 episodes of the EXIT: Advent Calendar Ice Cave, and… that’s probably about it?

Holidays. They’re the worst.

Hoping to play Arcs tonight (we were supposed to play last night, but there was a sudden big snowfall that made the roads dangerous and two of my players were going to drive in from out of town)… a couple games of vanilla before we dive into the Blighted Reach.

Other than that, I picked up the new Thunder Road Vendetta expansion (which turns the game from a race into an arena battle… I’ll be honest, I don’t care for that part at all, the only reason I picked it up is because the additional player, and because I’m hoping some of the neat super weapons will work in vanilla TRV), and that’s it.Still waiting for arrival of Ito and Ascending Empires and Earthborne Rangers, and the new N5 version of Infinity the Game, but I think that’s it…

Have a great December of gaming, everyone! Stay warm!

3 Likes

November Results

10 X 10 Challenge

Game Month Total Status
The Lord of the Rings Adventure Book Game - [23/10]
Roll Player - [10/10]
Race for the Galaxy 4 [10/10]
Terraforming Mars 5 [9/10]
Black Angel - [4.9/10]
Imperium: Classics 1 [2/10]
Concordia - [2/10]
Arkham Horror: The Card Game - [1/10]
Total 10 48.9

A good month for the 10x10, almost at a pass mark now.

Opportunity 50 x 2 Challenge

Game Month Total Status
Android: Mainframe - [2/2] :white_check_mark:
Arkham Horror: The Card Game - [1/2]
Au Griffon fonffon - [2/2] :white_check_mark:
Black Angel - [4.9/2] :white_check_mark:
Coin Quest 2 [2/2] :white_check_mark:
Concordia - [2/2] :white_check_mark:
Elevenses - [1/2]
For Northwood! A Solo Trick-Taking Game - [2/2] :white_check_mark:
The Gardens - [4/2] :white_check_mark:
Give it to the King! - [1/2] SOLD
The Hunger 1 [2/2] :white_check_mark:
Imperium: Classics 1 [2/2] :white_check_mark:
Keyforge Adventures: Fall of the House Gormangeist - [2/2] :white_check_mark:
Libertalia: Winds of Galecrest 2 [2/2]
The Lord of the Rings Adventure Book Game - [23/2] :white_check_mark:
Lords of Vegas - [1/2]
Lost Ruins of Arnak - [1/2]
Mint Works - [2/2] :white_check_mark:
Mykerinos - [2/2] :white_check_mark:
Oh My Goods!: Longsdale in Revolt - [2/2] :white_check_mark:
Orcs Orcs Orcs 2 [2/2] :white_check_mark:
Queendomino - [1/2]
Race for the Galaxy 4 [9/2] :white_check_mark:
Race for the Galaxy - The Gathering Storm expansion - [1/2]
Rewild 1 [4/2] :white_check_mark:
Roll Player - [10/2] :white_check_mark:
搜索 (Scout - One More Game! Edition) - [2/2] :white_check_mark:
Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective - [2/2] :white_check_mark:
Sprawlopolis - Points of Interest expansion - [2/2] :white_check_mark:
Sprawlopolis - Wrecktar expansion - [2/2] :white_check_mark:
Terraforming Mars - Prelude expansion 2 [2/2] :white_check_mark:
Under Falling Skies - [2/2] :white_check_mark:
Villages of Valeria - [1/2]
Wingspan - European Expansion 2 [2/2]
Progress 60%

A few expansions and a few games off the shelf, also good progress.

KeyForge Grim WoE 100 Challenge

Set Deck Month Total
WoE Alarming “Megavolt” Hayk 6 17
WoE Finally Educated Órækja - 9
WoE Poole of Saliseat - 9
WoE Rumpleadder, the “Protector” of Curses - 2
WoE [deck name redacted] - 6
GR Arrowshadow, Spawn of Superval - 17
GR Bourdet, Mauallan’s Conqueror - 4
GR Gasga, the Cobbler of the Tower - 9
GR LumiluLibrarian, the “Traitor” of the Past - 3
GR Nextikaod, the Footman of The South - 3
GR Saint-Germain of Saurtonne - 1
GR The Stingily Sagacious Thinker of Lydseat 1 8
GR Beluar, Scheming Pike Cartographer 3 3
Progress 13 of 31 decks played [91/100] plays

So many decks, so little time.

Netrunner 15 Challenge

[+2 = 13/15]

Tekeli 20 Challenge

[+5 = 18/20]

Have dashing December of gaming everyone!

5 Likes

I’ve been quiet on my progress this year, and have long since given up on the game every day streak. Still going well though.

10*10 getting there.

40*5 going ok too


I’m getting close on my 200 different games:

And at 394 plays I’m beating my 365 target.

Though I’ve only knocked 8/28 off my list of unplayed at the start of the year and the list for next year has been growing!

7 Likes

Well, gonna have to call it, as I’m on my way to Quebec City to see my family and Maryse is staying behind:

With everything that happened this year (Maryse’s mum’s passing being the big one), we have not managed to play 52 different games in 52 weeks. We came pretty close, though, finishing at 42. Pretty happy!

We did, however, manage to finish a side quest of ours, which was to play 5 different games with other players. Finished with 10.

We also played 19 new-to-us games!

Overall, that’s a success in my book.

13 Likes

Ok, I didn’t post a challenge here at the start of the year but have secretly been beavering away at getting more new games played. Thus dwindling the shelf of opportunity size, as it was becoming a shelf of embarrassment. I’ve found keeping a list on my phone to be really helpful at motivating me.

So I got through 25 ‘new to me’ games this year. This leaves me (including new games added this year) to 17 still to play. Still too many but a marked improvement.

Summary
  • Death may die
  • Roccocco
  • John company
  • Root
  • Nokosu dice
  • Lisboa
  • On mars
  • Moon
  • Food chain magnate
  • Scythe
  • Dune imperium
  • El grande
  • Battle of Versailles
  • Trio
  • Libertalia
  • Cthulhu death may die
  • Star Wars unlimited
  • Cartographers
  • Foundations of Rome
  • Haggis
  • Cascaderro
  • Daybreak
  • Zoo Vadis
  • Witchcraft
  • Wilmot warehouse
8 Likes

Aren’t Death May Die and Cthulhu Death May Die the same game?

3 Likes

DAMMIT! 24… but just played Star Wars Villanous to get back to 25.

4 Likes

Well… one game finished, which is pretty typical, but since I use these as motivation and not as “I MUST DO THESE THINGS!” I am okay with that.

I am more sad that I didn’t get any games of Descent, Heat, or Destinies over the entire year. That’s tragic. Two of those are top 10 games for me, and I really need to play a bunch of Destinies so I can move it out of my collection! Very frustrating. Ah well! There’s always 2025!

I did indeed play 3 games of Arcs and I am completely baffled by whether it’s a good game or not. I have to give it at least a few more whacks to figure out if I like it or not, but right now it’s just a weird, amorphous puzzle that’s blobbing its way through my brain. Might be great! Might be awful! I really don’t know yet.

And 17 of the EXIT Advent Ice Cave. We’ll finish it tomorrow.

Managed a very good job of playing all the games I own except for a few, though! Quite proud of that. Hopefully can keep that up, get at least one or two plays for everything in the collection before the next purge (I have to knock another 50-70 games out of the collection. Just no space).

Wilmot’s was neat. Arcs I mentioned above, it’s… weird. Lots of potential.

Still waiting for the official version of Ito, and the expansion for Mage Knight, both now 6+ months late. Ah well.

Happy New Year, everyone! I’ll start up a new 2025 Challenge in the morning if nobody else does it before then!

3 Likes

So, final tally:

January - 2/2
February - 2/2
March - 1/2
April - 0/2
May - 0/2
June - 1/2
July - 3/2
August - 0/2
September - 0/2
October - 0/2
November - 1/2
December - 2/2

The only bad thing is this months plays just consisted of games I got for Christmas, so it didn’t help clear anything off my shelf of shame/opportunity. I like to think we may have at least played a game today if our kids hadn’t been totally wired all day. Is Mercury in retrograde or something?

So 50% achieved. Not bad, all things considered. Had my wife not gotten a concussion in August that is still affecting her cognitive abilities, I am confident it would have been even higher. As it is, she’s just not really up for learning new games right now.

4 Likes

All-up:

Game Plays
Rallyman: GT 35 (+1)
Sea Salt & Paper 23 (+3)
Sentinels of the Multiverse: Definitive Edition 23 (+1)
Imperium: Horizons 20 (+1)
Terraforming Mars: The Dice Game 19
Kabuto Sumo 15
Flash Point: Fire Rescue 14
Rallyman: DIRT 13
Crokinole 12
Landmarks 12 (+4)
Project L 12 (+1)
Nokosu Dice 11
Rallyman 10

(and I’m sure there was at least one more Rallyman I didn’t log)

I did get several of my unplayed games either played or sold (and sold a bunch more), I did the 52 game challenge (just!), and I got nowhere on the game design side.

4 Likes

My list of unplayed games is now longer than last January… But they are mostly different games :woman_facepalming:

6 Likes