Happy New Year

With 3 days remaining of 2005, I took a look at my game statistics for the year and was sad to see that I’d only played 211 games—a lot less than I’d LIKE to have played. I hope next year will be better, but I won’t hold my breath.

Within that 211 games were 83 different games, many of them with just 1 play, but several that found their way to the table many times.

Memoir ’44—10 plays. A light war game that’s fun to play as long as you don’t mind the quirks that luck can play on you.

Attika—9 plays. Great as a 2-player game that my husband doesn’t mind playing with me. I really like resource management and that’s what this game is all about.

Architekton—8 plays. I kept coming back to this one trying to figure it out because it just doesn’t feel quite right. The basic idea is great but it never really played out all that well, in my opinion.

Fjords—8 plays. Fjords got many plays because it’s so quick and we really enjoy it. I’ll play this at the drop of a meeple.

Shadows Over Camelot—7 plays. Cori and I really enjoyed this at first but, as I figured, it doesn’t have the staying power to draw us back repeatedly.

Ta Yu—7 plays. A very good 2-player game with fabulous pieces. Richard and I like it for a quiet, pensive time together. Two plays were with 3 players which makes the game a bit different, strategically, but still very good.

Plunder—6 plays. Richard and I really enjoyed this for a while but I haven’t been drawn to it recently. There’s a lot going on in this game and yet it feels light when you’ve played it a few times.

Jambo—6 plays. One of my favorite Kosmos 2-player games with it’s variety of card abilities.

Titicaca—6 plays. An interesting area-control game with auctions, building and merging of areas. It also plays pretty well with just 2 players.

Ingenious—5 plays. I’m not totally impressed with Ingenious but it’s a good game to play with my son and his girlfriend.

StreetSoccer—5 plays. A fun time for 2 players when you want something light and fast. There are strategic choices to make but the roll of the die can still jump on your back and make you holler for mercy.

Through the Desert—5 plays. Still one of my favorites and I often use it with new gamers since it’s easy to explain and not that hard to comprehend but it displays well the idea of Euro-games—your decisions matter.

Corsari—4 plays. A simple variant of Gin Rummy which my husband likes very much and often suggests we play.

Crazy Chicken—4 plays. This simple card game is one of my favorites when we’re too tired for a heavier game.

Hansa—4 plays. I’ve played this many times with 2, 3 and 4 players and I still enjoy it. Managing Action Points is always fun for me, combined with balancing your selling and building which makes this one of my favorite lighter games.

Rheinlander—4 plays. One of the best games I bought this year with its take-over area control and hand management. I hope to try out the 2-player variant soon which Chuck Messenger posted on BGG recently. It sounds like a very good scaled-down version which keeps the play tight.
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Game Buying Update

For those of you regular readers who are curious, no, I still haven’t bought any new games! I haven’t even been tempted in the last 2 weeks although I have been checking the Boardgame News site regularly.
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Games

It’s been a very dry couple of weeks here so the only game I have to mention is Flandern 1302. Christmas Eve I persuaded Cori and Richard to give it a trial run with me and I have to say we were less than bowled over by it. We were pretty bored for the first half of the game and, although a couple more plays may improve our opinions, I doubt it will ever become one of our favorites.

On reading the rules, I felt it has the possibility for some clever moves and forward planning but the first game didn’t see us using the neutral guild to our best advantage. I would like to give it another try but I’m afraid I may not be able to convince Cori to give it another chance.
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Until next time, I wish you a Happy New Year filled with Love from your friends and family, Peace in your life and your mind, and Joy in everything that you do.

Mary