I’m not sure as I write this instalment of the 2018 retrospective if it will be the third and final part, or if I’m going to be cruel and do another one after this has been finished and posted.

In this post I’m going to steal the top 9 games meme, and use it here as others have elsewhere to share with you my top 9 new games to me of 2018.

I’ve not put them in any particular order, so their position in the grid should not be taken as having any significance or indication of a ranking. Nor was this process as scientific as my Top 100 of All Time that I did a couple years back.

The process I used this time was more gut feel. There were some games I really did enjoy playing that belonged to friends. But a deciding factor was, did that game make it into my collection? One or two that made this list were initially friends copies that I played. But they made such an impact I almost instantly added them to my collection.

So for your torture I present my Top 9 New To Me Games of 2018 meme…

Continuing the look back at 2018 that we started together yesterday. Today we look at the oddly chosen top 14 boardgames I played in 2018 ranked by the number of times that they were played.

I don’t think it’s any surprise that the top slot is MtG. I was playing a ridiculous amount casually during the first quarter of the year.

What I find interesting is that so many (approximately 5 of them) were added to the collection in the last quarter of the year. And so many of the top 14 were new to me games.

Charterstone is a game that needs completing, we got to the half way point before life got in the way. Our group that was playing it needs to find a common time slot that we can finish the game off in.

Did you play any of the above games? What did you think of them? What was your most played game of 2018?

It’s a well known fact I love a good bandwagon to jump on. It’s the only bit of exercise and excitement I get these days.

Earlier in the year I stopped putting up a monthly summary of my gaming month, and it was met up with a loud roar of indifference and silence. It seems that no-one missed it. A bit hurtful. But then I have to remember only a couple of my friends read this, possibly my attack chihuahuas, and my mum definitely doesn’t (she doesn’t know how to use a web browser and even if she did, she wouldn’t).

Naturally this time of year the Facebook boardgaming groups are clogged up with people sharing their top 9 games of 2018, or their gaming stats for 2018. It’s been going on for a week or two now.

Not to be left out I thought I’d resurrect for an end of year post, and belatedly jump on what is fastly becoming a cliche and crowded bandwagon, my gaming stats for 2018. Especially now that I have actually had my last gaming session of the year. But more importantly because people loved this type of post so much in the past and miss it dearly. It’s almost like a late Christmas present to those people.

So here are the headline figures for 2018…

NB. I don’t record time spent playing a game so the time and days stats are total b.s.

I had 81 more plays in 2018 than 2017 (962). However I played 48 less games in 2018, somehow I played 124 games in 2017. I played in 4 more locations in 2018 over 2017, but with less people that I know. I played with 6 less of my friends in 2018. That’s a shame. I should put the effort in to see who they are and make sure I share a game with them soon.

Ok time for some pretty pie charts.

How did you compare on the headline figures?