2011: Year in the Life of a Boardgaming Family

[1Mmirg]

Originally Posted by Dad_Scaper

What about San Juan, Mmirg?

As a fellor RftG fan with a family, I find San Juan scratches a similar itch in a package I can sometimes sell to the other customers.

I see it on your list, with a single recorded play. Why not try to push that one?

Games like that are exactly what this list is about for me. I thought I'd played it several times. It's one of my wife's most favorites and we picked up the (excellent!) expansion for it--so I figured it would have a decent showing. Couldn't believe it clocked in at 1 play.

Sure, I may have missed a play here or there, but clearly it's not being played like it was in 2010 (and before), when I'm certain we were playing it nearly monthly.

The reason I kept track was to see what was actually happening, versus my feeling of what was happening.

Couldn't believe that Betrayal, Last Night, even Race for the Galaxy clock in around 2-3 plays in the whole year!

(I should add that some games, like Finca, El Grande, Quarriors, etc. are low because we don't own those (yet) and so we only play when someone else provides them. But ones that we own and love, wow, hard to believe they come in so low.)

We'll definitely get back to San Juan this year. But I also have to admit that part of what happens is that our collection keeps growing--it's amazing how games I have great memories of playing slide over for the new stuff or get lost as "second best" games, which don't do well in the 5-way rotation--we all want to pick our favorite/best game--not the second best. (Thus, Last Night falls to Scape or Risk Legacy, that I'm going to pick over them 90% of the time.)

Anyhow, putting this list together was very informative for me.

And, in some ways, may just slow down my acquisition of new games. I'm clearly not enjoying all the ones I have quite enough.

EDIT: Eclipse, great list! Thanks for adding it. I'm sure if I did a list in that way it would be quite different from my current list. I was surprised how actual plays differed from my perceived impact of games. Of course, it takes 23 games of UNO to match even one game of Last Night (and then only in length, not value!). But it was fun to see how the counts fell out.

Thanks for sharing!

[Eclipse]

I should probably add Neuroshima Hex to the list. I only have it on my iPhone and just play it solo against the computer, but it definitely got a ton of playtime last year.

[IAmBatman]

Cool stuff, 1Mmirg! I'll have to start posting on here some so that I stop sidetracking C3G threads with other game banter between Hahma and I!

I have a once per week game night these days and it's 99% of the time just me and my friend Tim, so we sadly have to stick to the 2 player capable games we have (I miss Battlestar Galactica and Puerto Rico!) but Race for the Galaxy, Civilization, and Memoir 44 have been our biggest plays lately, with smatterings of Dominion (which I could play a million times in a row without getting tired of it as long as we switched up sets regularly enough).

Agricula is another one of my personal favorites, but everybody else seems t hate playing it with me ... if we had a wheel system like you do, though, I'd probably force it on people from time to time. Most of the time unless it's during my weekly game nights, though, it's pretty much play what the other person wants to or play nothing!

I play tons of C3G too, but exclusively for playtesting. Too much set up time involved and too steep a learning curve for my once a week game nights, unfortunately (though I suppose Civilization is guilty of this as well ... but I'm loving it).

Originally Posted by Dad_Scaper

What about San Juan, Mmirg?

As a fellor RftG fan with a family, I find San Juan scratches a similar itch in a package I can sometimes sell to the other customers.

I see it on your list, with a single recorded play. Why not try to push that one?

My mom and sister are definitely not much in the way of gamers, but I introduced them to San Juan last year and they love it. We played a ton of it over Christmas (I introduced them to the expansion this time around).

My wife is really big into Ticket to Ride and we even got her family (also not really gamers at all) to play that one and they enjoyed it. So those are two pretty good family friendly ones in my book.

Speaking of San Juan, I love it, but Race for the Galaxy has pretty much filled the same slot for me on game nights, since it's pretty much a more complex version of the same thing. I'm a big fan of the basic role selection and tableau building mechanics, though.

I'm also eternally debating on which game to add to my collection next ... I think I pretty much have it down to either Pirate's Cove, The Adventurers, or 7 Wonders.

I like the idea of the theme of the first two better, but I have a feeling that 7 Wonders might see more play (I just worry it might be too much like other games I already have).

[1Mmirg]

Great to see you posting here, Bats--thanks!

Ticket to Ride is a great game for what I'd call family-friendly play. Solid, enjoyable, plenty going on, but not too hard. We like Europe best, but some prefer others. The new Asia map is very fun.

I haven't played Civilization yet. Is it one I should be looking for?

--

As to your next purchase, here are a few thoughts, fwiw:

Pirate's Cove is fun, but not amazing, imo. I like it, but it isn't among the standouts for me. (I can't speak to it personally, but Tom (Vasel) highly recommended Jamaica to me--basically said it's the best family-friendly Pirate game out there.)

I haven't played The Adventurers. What I've heard is that it's replay isn't as great as some would like.

7 Wonders I love. The downside is the 2-player version is kind of lame, though it works--basically you set up a fake 3rd "person" and dump junk on to them, while really competing with the other live person. But, if you have a group, then it is excellent. (Don't expect a "big" game--it is much more like Dominion than Puerto Rico.)

If you like Race and want another one that is similar, yet different enough, imo, then Eminent Domain may be worth looking at.

[nyys]

355 plays this year, here are the top 10.

54 Magic The Gathering
If not for this one my plays this year woud have been way way down from 2010 (450+). MtG hit the store shelves my first year of college and many of my friends played it. I never got into it for whatever reason, most likely because I was being introduced to more powerful computers at the time. "You have a 486? WOW!" Wolfenstein! DOOM!

I continued to avoid the game altogether until last March (18ish years later) when a free deck came in my swag bag at PAX East. With the abundance of dealers at PAX peddling used and very cheap starter decks, I decided to grab a second deck (and 3rd and 4th) to give the game a whirl with my son.

Having learned Pokemon the Summer before, this was an easy transition. For a good solid month we played a ton (for us), bought packs, and even ordered some singles. I think the ability to play 3-4 games in a sitting or just needing 20 minutes before bed time to get something in, was the biggest reason behind the binge.

Then two things happened, we both realized we weren't having as much fun as we thought, and we discovered Warhammer: Invasion.


38 Heroscape
No shock at all that this one is near the top of the list, though I am surprised that the number isn't higher. The tourney sceene drying up a bit in the Northeast, much of my Scape time being devoted to playtesting for the SoV (and C3V at times), and my son losing a bit of interest due to the glut of games we have to choose from, are all taking bites out of just playing Scape.


17 Quarriors
Absolutely love this game. Simple, quick, and you get to roll tons of dice! I hear complaints about this and that about Quarriors, but it's a straight-up dice game, of course it's a luck fest.


14 Lost Cities
Lost Cities isn't nearly one of my favorites, but it is my Wife's favorite game, and any time she asks to play I say... "Yes Dear."


14 Warhammer: Invasion
Unless my son explicitly requests it, I will never play Magic again if for no other reason than this game. It's a LCG (Living Card Game) so we have access to everything, and the theme is in the Warhammer Universe which is second only to the 40K Universe for me. It's got a ton of similarities to Magic, and probably the only down side is that it's just a 2-player game.


12 Ascension
It's grown on me a little, but I really dislike the art in this game, it simply does not do it for me. But when I think deck builder, I think this one first all the time. Not exactly sure why since there is a bit of a luck factor in this one that you don't get with others like Dominion and Thunderstone. Most likely it's because it the easiest to set-up and go, and since our gaming time at home is precious, anything that is a quick set-up, gets the nod more often than not.


12 Dragon Dice
The months of February and March last year I went nuts learning this game. It was collecting dust for the longest time on my shelf, but I knew a great game was in there if I could just get past the rulebook (it's awful... really really awful).

Finally I got the motivation to track down the website and start asking questions. Before I knew it I was having daily email conversations with the folks who run SFR and I had agreed to run demos at PAX East. Tons of fun once I learned how it worked, and like any game I dove in head first and bought hundreds of dice from folks giving up their collections (along with the tons of free ones SFR gave me for my demo time).

Well, I haven't played a game of Dragon Dice since PAX last year, but I do claim some responsibility in hooking the current Dragon Dice Champion, our very own Matthias (GenCon 2011), who had asked me about the game and the rest is history. Looking forward to MMs revamped rule book.


11 Coloretto
I think a lot of 'simple' games like this one are going to show up high on my 2012 list come the end of the year. My middle daughter is now old enough to participate (she's 6) and I've since influxed a bunch of new games into our collection that she can play. She's not quite as driven as my son (now 9) who was playing basic Scape at age 4 and went to his first tourney at age 6, but she likes to play with us, so I've done what I can to find interesting stuff all while being fun for everyone. Coloretto is easily that and more. Great game for the kiddies and adults.


08 Summoner Wars
I'm always lamenting to my son how little we play this one and now I see that it's in my top ten played. Something isn't right. Great everything about this one, just not enough time in the day.


07 D&D Castle Ravenloft
This is another one (along with the rest of the series) that I think about how I would like to play more, but with the time, table space and set-up required, it's another we can only manage once in a while. Great dungeon crawl to play with the kids, and we've used this one to snag some of my son's friends into the cult of gaming.


Final thoughts: We tend to binge game in my house. We'll go crazy playing one game for a while, then it will sit for months on end. It also doesn't help that I'm a bit of an addict and seem to order 3-4 new games every other month, so there's always new shiney to look at and distract us from getting old favorites to the table.

I definitely read more rule books this year from my collection than unique games played. Before the Summer started my son and I made a pact to play one unplayed game from our collection a week, and it worked really well. We almost got caught up too, but then I was fortunate to come across some disposable income, and lets just say we'll need a few months to get all the new stuff played (if not longer).

Eh, there are worse things I could be addicted too.


Rounding out the rest of the plays:

Spoiler Alert!

7 Wooly Bully
6 Carcassonne
6 Pokémon Trading Card Game
5 Cave Troll
5 Fish Eat Fish
5 Neuroshima Hex!
5 Thunderstone: Dragonspire
4 51st State
4 Dominion
4 Gosu
4 Puzzle Strike
4 Rattus
3 A la carte
3 Bears!
3 Blockers!
3 Castle Panic
3 Catacombs
3 Defenders of the Realm
3 Domaine
3 Forbidden Island
3 Kingsburg
3 The Mines of Zavandor
3 Nightfall
3 PitchCar
2 Alien Frontiers
2 Angry Birds: Knock on Wood
2 Ascension: Return of the Fallen
2 Black Sheep
2 Drakon (3rd Edition)
2 Hey, That's My Fish!
2 Ingenious Challenges
2 Manhattan
2 Monopoly Deal Card Game
2 Monsterpocalypse
2 Omen: A Reign of War
2 Pandemic
2 Roll Through the Ages: The Bronze Age
2 Saboteur
2 Survive: Escape from Atlantis!
2 Ticket to Ride
1 10 Days in the USA
1 Alhambra
1 Animal Upon Animal
1 Battle Line
1 Battleship
1 Battlestar Galactica
1 Belfort
1 Blokus
1 Cable Car
1 Citadels
1 Cyclades
1 Dominant Species
1 Doom: The Boardgame
1 Fauna
1 FITS
1 Ghost Stories
1 Gold Mine
1 The Golden City
1 Heroica: Fortaan
1 Incan Gold
1 Innovation
1 Launch Pad
1 Minotaurus
1 Ninja Versus Ninja
1 Poker
1 Qwirkle
1 Risk
1 RoboRally
1 Scrabble Junior
1 Sorry! Sliders
1 Space Hulk: Death Angel - The Card Game
1 Stone Age
1 Ta Yü
1 Ticket to Ride: Europe
1 Tobago
1 Travel Blokus
1 Tumblin-Dice
1 Ultimate Werewolf: Ultimate Edition
1 Unpublished Prototype
1 World of Warcraft Miniatures Game
1 Yggdrasil

[1Mmirg]

Can't rep you (bummer), but thanks for sharing, nyys. Great list. Summoner Wars is in a very similar category for me as well.

It is, simply, one of the best games out there. Incredible balance in the play, great fun, etc. Somehow, though, it just doesn't hit the table like I think it should. (14 plays, isn't bad, but I'm surprised it's not at the top.)

Biggest issue, for us, is that we often have 5 players. That's hard to pull with Sum Wars. And when it's just me and boys, we tend to play Scape over Sum Wars.

Such a great game. Hope to play it more this year.

[Dad_Scaper]

We love it in my house but like virtually everything else we hardly ever play. I mentioned to the kid it was coming out in app form, though, and he's been bugging me about *that* ever since.

[1Mmirg]

Yeah. I don't get the whole craze about playing games as apps. Admittedly, I only have a phone that, well, makes phone calls.

But I have played some boardgames online and I just don't get the appeal. I want to sit down and play a game with my wife or my family or some friends or whomever--but with them, sitting at my table. Crazy, I know.

[Jim]

Originally Posted by 1Mmirg

Yeah. I don't get the whole craze about playing games as apps. Admittedly, I only have a phone that, well, makes phone calls.

But I have played some boardgames online and I just don't get the appeal. I want to sit down and play a game with my wife or my family or some friends or whomever--but with them, sitting at my table. Crazy, I know.

See, with the Ascension and Carcassonne apps (only to use those two examples) I can be playing games with my friends across the country (or even world) whenever I want. And because it is turn based, they can take their turns when they have a chance, and then I can take my turn when I have a chance. It may take weeks to finish a single game, but it is still a game played with them. While I would much rather play a game face to face, I don't consider this a replacement, more of an additional way to play.

[1Mmirg]

That's a good point, Jim. If I could play more games with friends/family that don't live near me, yeah, I could see that draw. And I like the point about turn-based play as well. That's even better. The little I've done online was a bit frustrating to set-up/arrange.

Maybe by 2013 there will be a device in the Mmirg household that makes this kind of play possible--then I'll tell you what I think of it.

[Jim]

Originally Posted by 1Mmirg

Maybe by 2013 there will be a device in the Mmirg household that makes this kind of play possible--then I'll tell you what I think of it.

There was a device in the Mmirg household that makes that kind of play possible, almost a month ago.



Wow, was it that long ago already?

[1Mmirg]

Hard to believe it's been that long. Crazy.

Well, I can tell you, Jim, that if (when?) I get something that can run boardgame apps, I'll be hoping to try some out with you.