T’is that time! It’s January, and I am nothing if not a creature of habit.
As always, the Challenge is whatever you’d like to use to motivate yourself (and potentially others) to put games on the table. This is pure positive, no negative… there are people who do 10x10s (like me!), or 20x5s, or 100x1s, or Games I Wanna Play… whatever you find motivational and want to share with the class!
My personal 10x10 list heading into 2026 is going to be:
Twilight Imperium 4th Edition:
Inis
Earthborn Rangers
Thunder Road Vendetta
Space Empires 4X
Mandalorian Adventures
Battletech Co-op Campaign
Dune War for Arrakis
Tales of the Arabian/Arthurian (K)Nights
Xia Legend of a Drift System
A few repeats from last year, but regardless, these are the games I am most excited to put on the table that are big enough that I may not get them on the table.
We shall try. As last year, when I complete a game I’ll add another to the list to give me some variety and flexibility.
My list of currently owned but unplayed games is:
The Undercity
Dune Conquest
New Salem
Catacombs Red/Co-op Version
Flick 'Em Up Stallion Canyon
Flick 'Em Up Red Rock Tomahawk
Good luck to everyone for whatever goals you set for yourself! I believe in you!
My aim (I think) is to try to play my favourite games more often. Spirit Island and Guards of Atlantis 2 both hit the table over New Year and they were awesome.
I’ve got 3 get togethers pretty firmly in the diary, as well as the weekly night.
The back half of 2025 was crazy from a life perspective, so things should settle down slightly.
I’m going to try and work out a plan to get the Great Western Trail trilogy played a lot this year. I don’t really want El Paso, but it might be a means of teaching it.
Having taken a break from gaming for a while and not had the opportunities or motivation to get back into it in time for my usual Christmas/New Year challenge, I’m setting myself a more achievable goal for 2026. The aim is simple: play at least one different game every weekend throughout the year. Counting a weekend as Friday night through Sunday night and knowing that I have many more than 52 games which I can play solo should make this very possible for me, even when a weekend looks too busy or I lose the bug for anything too complex. It should give me a chance to catch up on my unplayed titles as well as revisit some older favourites.
Additional: I will probably end up adding solo rpgs or gamebooks as well as board/cardgames into this challenge, to give me a chance to try out a few books gathering dust on the shelves.
I would like to find more time for gaming in the first place.
I do like the 10x10 or other “plays” challenges though, so I made two and actually preselected some games this time.
For my solos I selected 10 to play 10 times. These last years I let the plays dictate what became part of the challenge, this year I am trying with preselected games:
Beacon Patrol
Cascadia (might switch that to Alpine Lakes when I acquire that)
Hispania
Let’s Go To Japan
Mistborn
Naturopolis
Nusfjord
Red Rising
Sanctuary
Spirit Island
For multiplayer I selected 20 games to try 5 times. Lots of 2 player only games. If I get to fill 10 of them I’ll consider myself successful: Bomb Busters, Compile Main 1, Cryptid, Mischwald, The Gang, Innovation, Link City, LotR: Duel, Quest fo El Dorado, Planet Unknown, Radlands, Res Arcana, Revive, Robo Rally, Spirit Island, Splendor Duel, Leviathan Wilds, Just One, Clank! Legacy 2 (our campaign floundered after a good start), Ai Space Puzzle
I would also like to reduce my collection size again and finally sell the games on my sell stack. But I haven’t been able to find the time/energy since we moved so … I remain doubtful if this year will be the year that I get back to that.
I have also challenged myself to a small gaming streak from 24th of December to 6th of January and so far have succeeded but only because I have a ton of small solo games that will fit into even the tiniest time slots available.
GOALS for this year (copy and pasted from the Minimalist Guild in BGG)
As I am writing this, I now have 89 board games. I’d like to reduce that further. No target. Number of games must be below 89.
I would like to finish my solo puzzle games (e.g. Sherlock Holmes, Postcurious games) similar to the Magic Number challenge. Reach zero for solo puzzle games
I currently have over 30 something “big games” in my core rotation. That is a lot! I would like to reduce that to 20. Number of big games in core rotation down to 20 .
Weekend 1 and first game of 2026 played. 7 Wonders Duel solo variant against Caeser. I was aiming for the science victory and just missed it, but kept an eye on his military strength too. Eeked out a civilian victory 56 to 53, probably low scores overall but great to get any game back to the table after so long.
I don’t set myself detailed game-playing challenges.
But this year I’d like to:
End the year with no games unplayed. There are only two of these now - Fate of the Fellowship and Flip7, both xmas presents - so surely this is doable?
Not buy too many games! Three or four maybe.
Find the time and make the effort to play some of the bigger games I love playing solo but too rarely actually get round to. Robinson Crusoe, Archipelago, Ark Nova, Orléans, the Shem & Sam games, to name but a few. Fields of Arle, to name another.
Oh, and find some way to dispose of the handful of games I no longer need but haven’t shifted yet.
And I managed to complete it with help of lots of small games because the time between 24th of December and 6th of January is among my busiest…
24: Dodo with the kids
25: Cockroach Salad and Hey That’s My Fish with the kids
26: Deckers
27: One Piece Nakama
28: Spirit Island, Daybreak on BGA
29: Sprawlopolis
30: A Gentle Rain (some days that’s about the bandwidth I have)
31: Sanctuary
01: Trailblazers
02: Sanctuary
03: A Gentle Rain, 2x Naturopolis with the “new” Elevation expansion which is among the better expansions for a *-polis game
04: Sanctuary (I kind of like this game I guess)
05: Naturopolis
06: A Gentle Rain
07: Beacon Patrol (it’s been a surprisingly long while I played this and it made me hit my 21x21 H-index challenge)
The small streak has been a great help to get me away from the computer and sitting down at my actual gaming table. Not sure I’ll manage to continue it much longer but it’s been good for me to challenge myself and it all started with the kids wanting to play their Xmas present on the 24th
My 2026 challenge is to once again try to get more of my unplayed games to the table. Last year I tried two a month but only managed an average of one, so that’s what I am going for: one unplayed game a month.
BUT! I also want to get those 12 games BACK to the table. So I want to replay those 12 games at least twice over the course of this year. Playing a game once to check it off as played is one thing. Bringing it back to the table to explore and enjoy more is truly the purpose of owning it in the first place.
Well, an okay month for gaming overall, but not great for games on the list. Although 2 plays of Space Empires 4X was more than expected, and I have a 3rd currently underway on BGA.
I’ve played a bunch of Talon, which was really nice to put through its paces, and a bunch of LotRFotRTTG after a few games of Frosthaven. But this month has been mostly consumed with work, so that’s about it.
Three new acquisitions, and I managed to get one on the table. It’s solid. Not fantastic, but good fun and my partner doesn’t hate it so that’s a huge win.
A buddy gave me a Kill Team for WH40K Kill Team (specifically the Tempestus Aquilons, who are far too fragile for my playstyle), so I’ve been kinda roped into playing that now. I can’t turn down free miniature games… and the ruleset is really rather elegant by WH40K standards. Still very loosely-goosey “Whatever is the newest Codex is most powerful” with power creep all over the place, but still, probably the best WH40K game I’ve played in a very, very long time. And free!
(I have ordered my own Kill Team of Sisters of Battle, because screw squishy Kill Teams)
First time to the table:
Jan - Thunder Road: Vendetta
Games to replay from 2025 challenge: The Hobbit: There and Back Again Hot Streak Lord of the Rings: Duel for Middle-Earth Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective: Jack the Ripper and West End Adventures Fortune and Glory Courtisans DC Super Heroes United: Batman Hush Legacy of Yu Metal Gear Solid: the Board Game Unmatched: The Witcher - Realms Fall Unmatched: The Witcher - Steel and Silver Fall of Rome
Unsure about Motor City so far, but all the others are good, at a minimum.
February Mini Challenge: Solo Game of the Month time
Learn and play the flurry of Solo Game of the Month boxes that arrived late last year; Hopefully they’re as good as Dieson Crusoe and Small-Time Heroes.
