So, last year I played just over 200 games total. (BGG says just under 200 but I know I forget to log sometimes!) At least 82 of them were ‘new to me’ games, either games from our shelf of opportunity or new releases. I don’t want to do a ‘top ten of 2019’ or even of the decade as I haven’t played ALL the games and know there will be stuff I’m missing out that deserve to be on there (I am still to play Barrage or Trismegistmus which I think will come in pretty high!) Instead, I’m gonna talk about the games I played last year (yes, it’s another rambling from my brain post this week!)
November and January were my ‘most played’ months, I suspect BGG Con helps to bump November and January was probably a burst of new games from Christmas and my newly listed shelf of opportunity spreadsheet that I do at the start of every year! My poorest month with only four plays logged was October - Essen month believe it or not!
Our most played game of the year was Quacks of Quedlinburg. I picked this up in December 2018 as it had won the Kennerspiel award for the year. It was certainly not what I was expecting, but turned out to be a game we thoroughly enjoyed. I even bought the geek up pieces from BGG for it as our cardboard chits were starting to look a little worn!
Our second most played game of the year came in at a tie, the super quick and easy Ganz Schon Clever alongside Coimbra. I love both of these games for very different reasons. I enjoy games that force you to make the most of every move and Coimbra with its nine actions all game is a perfect example of this. Every action must count! Ganz Schon Clever is the almost polar opposite to Coimbra with it’s quick, dice chucking fun. Something that anyone can easily pick up and enjoy and a great way to kill ten minutes at the start or end of a gaming evening!
Then, I have a three-way tie for third place and again, a mixed bunch! I was late to the party with Underwater Cities, only picking it up midway through the year but it has quickly risen to the top of many lists for me! This beautiful example of engine building has become one of my all-time firm favourites, and only enhanced by the expansion which was released at Essen and was the first thing I bought there this year. Kashgar: Merchants of the Silk Road also came in third, I love the card mechanism used in this game. You have three rows of cards but can only ever use the card at the bottom of one of your rows, once you have used it, it goes back to the top. This leads to some real juggling in terms of getting the cards you want to the bottom of multiple rows at the same time to activate combinations. Lastly in third place is a new game which we purchased at Essen proving how much we love it! Paladins of the West Kingdoms is the second entry in the West Kingdoms saga from Shem Phillips. We really enjoyed Architects but I’m now sure that Paladins is my favourite of the two. Another game that forces you to maximise every action. Starting the round with six workers and spots that require up to three workers to activate, this game is tight, but get the right combos and everything can slot into place beautifully.
Then, we have a huge bulk of games in fourth place, to touch on a few. Alexander Pfister is super represented here with Mombasa, Great Western Trail, and Maracaibo all coming in this position. None of which I feel I’ve played enough to fully explore fully and all of which I’m looking forward to getting multiple games of this year!
Though, onto this year’s challenge!
We have far too many unplayed games on our shelves at the moment, something that has been made more noticeable as we have sorted out our games and now dedicated a room to their storage! So, our plan is to try and play ten ‘new to us’ games each week until clearing the backlog. This is, of course, alongside trying to keep up-to-date with review games (only eleven of them - phew!) So far, this week, we have managed nine of our ten so it’s looking good.
What did you play last year?
