I suppose this is the third and final post in what has turned out to be a poorly conceived and written annual review for 2021.
Before I go on and pick my game of 2021. I should just recap the criteria for qualifying as a candidate to be chosen as a potential game of the year.
There are basically only two criteria to make the “short list”. First the game has to be a new to me game. So basically a game I haven’t played before. Secondly I have to have played it in that calendar year.
The candidates for this years game of the year are…
It’s a pretty strong list. A nice mix of new and old to chose from.
However my game of 2021 is …
My Game of the Year 2021 – Dune Imperium
This won’t come as a surprise to anyone. Despite Gavin not liking it. But he’s wrong on this. We have to remember the cards in this game and Vampire the Masquerade Rivals (the runner up to my game of the year) hated him (how he upset the card gods I don’t know) and coloured his judgement on those games. Plus he likes Barenpark. It’s all we need to know.
What can I say? This mashup of worker placement and deckbuilding is awesome.
This is what I said about Dune Imperium back in October about what I liked about it.
“The unique player abilities (which I believe the Arnak expansion adds), the combat, twice as many rounds, the influence tracks, the worker placement plus the reveal stage, dual use cards, the take that element. Oh and that the scoring is much closer.”
Naturally I love the theme. I’m a fan of the books. Love Lynch’s movie adaptation (more than the very visually impressive recent Villeneuve cinematic outing). I think using art based on the latest movie works well.
I’m looking forward to the imminent (January?) arrival of the first expansion. It looks very exciting and shakes things up.
In my previous blog post I waffled on about the game challenges I’d set up in the bgstat app I use, and how I fell just short of achieving the Play 15 New Games to Me challenge.
You may have also noticed in that post and later on in this one the 3×3 or 4×4 image grid of game covers. I used to produce these using an app called Diptic and having to do a Google image search to find each relevant game box image. But now the bgstat generates these for me with out all that extra effort! What a great new (well to me, not sure when it was added) feature.
2021 has been an interesting year to say the least gaming wise. It wasn’t until the later half of the year before world events allowed in person gaming to become a thing again. I have to say I missed playing with others a lot. So it was really great to be doing that again.
Fenland Gamers has grown in size! By that I mean those that attend gaming sessions on a regular basis. This has been amazing, and the new members have been really great to game with. Because of this success we ended the year saying good bye to our hosts The Luxe.
We still live in uncertain times. Who knows what 2022 has in store for us. Hopefully despite what it decides to throw at us we can continue to meet up, play games, and share good times.
As with more recent stat posts I’m not going to attempt to analyse the data. I’m going to just put the data out there and let it speak for itself.
But first for those that aren’t interested in anything other than my top 9 played games of 2021, here is a snazzy 3×3 image grid of those games.
My Top 9 Most Played Games of 2021
And now for those that want more details here are the stats for my gaming in 2021. The only thing you have to ignore from these stats is the time and days figures. I don’t record that data so those figures are basically gibberish. I’d also call bs on the number of players. It’s much much lower than that, less than 20 would be my guess. But this is due to me not adding everyone I play with as a named player. They only usually get added after I’ve played against/with them on a regular basis.
I think it was a couple of months back I set myself some gaming challenges within the bgstat app.
It’s not something I do a lot of. However I thought why not?
Over the period covered by “lockdowns” and various restrictions belatedly introduced by our Tory overlords as some sort of token gesture towards dealing with world events, I had added one or two games and expansions to the collection.
It’s not as if I needed much encouragement to get any of those purchases to the table once gaming in person was once again a thing that we did.
Remembering what had been added during that period however would be more of a challenge.
So I set up a challenge to track those plays and to remind me what games and expansions had been purchased. Apparently there were 25 additions of one form or the other in that time.
One or two of those purchases would be considered for big boardgames. For example the Prophecy of Kings expansion for TI4 or the Mother of Dragons expansion for AGoT. They would be much much harder to get to the table.
But there are some big boardgames in my collection that I’d also like to see return to the table. So I set up a second challenge to encourage me to get some of those bigger games to the table.
Both of those challenges I have given myself until November 2022 to complete.
However I needed a more immediate challenge to aim for as well. Something achievable by the end of the year. So I set up a third challenge, to play 15 new to me games by the end of 2021.
With 2021 fastly coming to an end and no more gaming sessions planned before the challenge deadline. It does indeed look like I will have failed at this third challenge.
I’ve come within spitting distance of achieving it.
As the image above shows I’ve played 12 new to me games since August of this year. Two of which belong to someone else! Who happens to be the same person, Jonathan.
I think I’ll set up a similar challenge in the new year. At the moment my gut is telling me to set the target to 20 new to me games.
Oh and finally I got caught up with the reduced to clear section at Tesco and ended up getting a poker set for half price.
Yes I know this post is appearing Boxing Day. I had to write about this at some point. There wasn’t time on the day. Well technically there was but I was too tired. After all I had been to work that morning, and then more or less gone straight to the game session (ran in the house changed and left).
Then yesterday was Christmas Day with all that entails. I just about got the post out wishing everyone seasonal greetings. However I did cook our roast beef, and all that goes with it. Which meant the beef was cooked to medium and not the over cooked well done.
However I digress. The point of this post is to talk about the Fenland Gamers Christmas Eve gaming session.
Traditionally the Christmas Eve session has been the first of the club’s three Christmas holidays gaming sessions. However this year it was to be our only planned club event, and our last for the foreseeable future at our hosts The Luxe.
Due to the number attending this gaming session and the restriction on the number of tables we were allowed to have set up (just the one). Our planned Bohemian Villages game was postponed into the new year and our “new” venue. Which means I am still the current reigning Bohemian Villages Champion.
Luckily Jonathan had games with him that played on the larger player count side. I hadn’t had time to grab anything specific (remember I barely had time to change out of work clothes) I had just grabbed my bag from our last session that was of no use.
Our first game of the afternoon was Jewel Heist.
Jewel Heist falls into what I would call Resistance style games, or hidden role/social deduction games.
The theme of this game is in the name! Thieves are trying to steal jewels whilst the detectives are trying to workout who the thieves are and make an arrest before all the jewels are gone.
In Jewel Heist there are physical jewels the thieves have to take! And that is where we start to see how Jewel Heist differentiates itself from other games in the genre.
This game relies on sound! What did you hear while your eyes were closed? Did you hear a marble falling? Did you hear someone moving? Which direction did the sound come from? Any audible clue to help narrow down the suspects.
There is also a time pressure on the thieves whilst taking the jewels. They have 15 seconds to pull off the heist each round. So they don’t get all the time in the world to pull off the perfect crime. They are forced to quick and potentially noisy.
I didn’t think I’d like this reliance on sound and the time restriction but it worked really well, and I found myself enjoying it.
Although I would say a rectangular table probably isn’t the optimal table for this game, and that a circular one would have been much much better.
The game then borrows from Cash ‘n Guns for its voting system of who players think are thieves for each round by pointing fingers (not foam guns) simultaneously. Another clever way of differentiating itself.
Overall I think this is a nice addition to the genre. It’s different enough to make it standout. Although it seemed overly complicated/fiddly with the jewel tower, it wasn’t. It’s a fairly streamlined fun.
We played best of three games. It ended up the thieves winning two games to one. And I was never on the winning side.
Our final game of the afternoon was Saboteur. I think all we need to take away from this fun hidden role game was I didn’t win, and neither did Jonathan. Although he did get more points than me!
Although it’s been about two years since I played Saboteur, and I do enjoy playing it. Why haven’t I added it to my collection? I think I did look at getting it not long after first playing it. But why I never pulled the trigger I have no idea. Most likely won’t be adding it any time soon. I think there are three members now with copies.
I had a great afternoons gaming with some great people.
At the end of the session we collected my other table and they both left with us to go to their new home.
Oh I also had a delivery Christmas Eve. The Kickstarter stretch goal packs for Fields of Green and it’s expansion Grand Fair (which I don’t currently own) arrived from Artipia Games.
Fields of Green KS stretch goals and Promos
I love that Artipia sell these, and wish more publishers did this.
Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas from myself, Nathan, Mum and obviously our benevolent overlords, the apex predators, the cerebral assassins, Nico and Loki – attack chihuahuas.
It’s been a day or two since the last post. Nothing much gaming wise has happened.
Well that’s not entirely true. Jonathan and I have had a chat about Fenland Gamers stuff last Saturday when we met up for a handing over of a boardgame. But I’ll probably cover the conversation in another post at the appropriate time.
The big take home from the above is what was boardgame I handed over to Jonathan?
At the start of the week on the BGT&C UK Facebook page we both belong to a copy of Via Nebula came up for sale. I knew Jonathan had been after a copy. So I grabbed it before anyone else could. Games go ridiculously quickly on this page. Especially if they are out of print (like Via Nebula is) and at a reasonable price. I couldn’t wait for Jonathan to see the post. It could have been sold.
I then contacted Jonathan to let him know what I’d done and to check if he wanted it! Yep I know a bit risky doing it this way round. Especially since I already own the game. But if on the remote chance Jonathan didn’t want it I could easily have sold it on. Luckily I’d called it correctly and Jonathan did indeed did want it.
So that was the game I was handing over last weekend.
This is a good example also of how you can tell just how much another person likes a game of yours after playing it.
Yes they may of had an enjoyable experience of the game. And indeed like it a lot and want to play it again.
But you know they “really” like it, when they add it to their wish list or buy it straight away.
I’ve been known to have done this myself once or twice in the past. Viticulture is definitely one example that comes to mind.
I am a creature of habit or more routine. Every now and then that routine changes.
With my new temporarily employed status and the early starts my morning routine has changed.
The time of morning I get up the last thing on my mind is making coffee! Shocking revelation I know. I barely manage a few mouthfuls of my current food addiction over night oats.
My morning caffeine fix was a cup of Kenco vending machine coffee once I got to work. The experience isn’t good.
So I bought the coffee equivalent of a teas-maid (as my friend Duncan calls it) a coffee filter machine that uses a travel mug instead of pot/jug and has a timer.
The night before I set everything up, grind the beans, put in the filter, top the water up, and set the timer for 4am (I said I’m up early!)
In the morning the only thing I have to do is add milk and go!
Oh what has the blog post title got to do with things? Nothing but I had to think of something to put!
Thursday morning was another Rivals session round Diego’s.
I had floated the idea two or three days before that we might build our own decks to play with. However it turns that idea was a bit optimistic taking into account work/life stuff and being knackered! So precon decks it was.
This time it was a battle of the clans from the two expansions. I was playing Tremere from the Blood and Alchemy expansion. Whilst Diego went with Gangrel from the Wolf and Rat expansion.
Tremere vs Gangrel
Our first game was probably our fastest game ever.
Diego won the roll off with my who goes first dice. Which meant I drew 2 vampire cards. One of those was Grigori.
Naturally to make best use of his leaders ability, agenda and haven Diego needed vampires in the street. Which would play in to Sonja Valentine’s ability.
With me putting out Grigori on my first turn. I was soon replacing the Gangrel blood on his leader with Tremere blood.
My leader (right) and vampire I played first turn(left)
The blood on his leader got less and less from activating abilities, it eventually got to the point where the only blood keeping his leader alive was my Tremere blood. Whilst this was happening I was thinking to myself “don’t play a vampire, don’t play a vampire”. All the time keeping my best poker face on trying not to show I was about to deliver the winning blow.
In my hand waiting for that moment of there to be no more Gangrel blood on Diego’s leader, and only my Tremere blood was Extinguish Vitae.
Diego finished his turn. Sonja replaced the final bit of Gangrel blood with Tremere blood. Then I took my first action which was to play Extinguish Vitae. I had defeated Diego’s leader and his only vampire to get the win.
Game two Diego had learnt his lesson and would not be making the same mistake.
The second game was very much more of a fight with the two of us trading blows looking for that moment to grab victory. The game ebb and flowed between us both having brief moments were one of us might have a slight advantage or we’d start gaining a bit of momentum before having our plans foiled by the other.
I think it helped in this game that I didn’t find Grigori, or that I didn’t draw that many ritual cards. Although I did get a Seek Knowledge out early on to give me some extra card draw to try and find answers!
My downfall in game two
In the end my undoing was “self inflicted” when I forgot about the end of turn trigger on the ongoing event The Hunger. I only had three prestige left, four vampires out, none at full health. Even if I had remembered I wasn’t able to mitigate the loss of prestige.
But a great morning of playing Rivals. We just need to get others interested and playing.
Last night was the last fortnightly Friday gaming session of 2021. Once again it was really well attended. Which is great to see.
I hadn’t planned on bringing any games to the evening. But my judgement got the better of me, and I threw in two or three “filler games” just in case.
It’s a good job I did. We were short of games that played at the higher player count.
We had two tables split as a group of five and a group of six.
Our table started off playing a very new arrival (came Tuesday if I remember correctly) Dune Betrayal.
A Resistance style game with a Dune theme. What’s not to like about it? Well obviously a lot if you are not a fan of the books/films, hidden traitor style games or sci-fi. But other than that nothing!
Obviously this was a “learning game”.
I have to say compared to Resistance (which you will naturally do) Dune Betrayal does seem over complicated. And I think even if you haven’t played Resistance that it would seem that way too.
However the mechanisms used in Dune Betrayal do get round that who to pick with zero information for the first mission that Resistance has.
Despite the feeling of being over complicated I do like the round structure of having three rounds drafting action cards, then two targeting rounds before all is revealed and scoring takes place.
What I like about them is that each round players are possibly revealing which side their identity is on by which action cards they are taking, and also who they are playing target cards on or not. Even by whose trait cards they look at.
And I do like that once a trait card has been seen it gets secured/locked so no one else can look at them. Plus you have no idea which of your two trait cards the person has seen.
I think like others of its ilk, this game is reliant on who you are playing with. Get the mix wrong and the game is not a fun experience for anyone.
Sadly for the bad guys House Harkonnen lost both games. Which obviously means House Atreides won both. I was on the losing side in both games.
Our tables second game of the evening was For Sale.
I’m so glad I added this classic to my collection. It’s just out and out fun.
Plus I’ve played it twice now, and won both games!
For Sale Results
We finished the evening with a game of No Thanks.
Another fun classic. We played two rounds.
No Thanks Results
The other table played Jamaica and Love Letter 2nd Edition (it supports up to six players). A big thank you to Diego for leading that table.
I think it can safely be said the Friday gaming has ended on a high.
Next up the Christmas Eve Bohemian Villages Championship. The banter/smack talk ramped up last night. It’s going to get worse over the next few days.
As is customary with these session planning posts here is the obligatory bit of house keeping I need to do.
SPOILER ALERT TO MY ADVENTURERS! The following post contains spoilers for the up and coming campaign. You may want to avoid this post and join me in a future one.
Will we ever start up our campaign again? That’s the thought going through my head at the moment.
After an attempt to get everyone to agree and commit to the 5th January, we finally settled on the following weekend of the 15th January.
However! Yeah you knew that was coming. That date is looking very unlikely. But the reason would fall very easily into the “no one saw this coming” category. Sadly life threw a pretty major curve ball at a member of our party which means they may not be able to make this date or any other for a while. It’s more important that my friend takes the time (however long) to recover. The campaign and gaming will be there waiting for when they are able to join us again at the table.
In the meantime using the medium of our messenger group I have warned everyone (without going into details) that the 15th is unlikely to go ahead. However. Yep I used a however with them too. Those of us that could should still meet up on the 15th and do a one shot. Which could still be D&D based. Or as I suggested in another system such as (and I just listed two or three that I own) Paranoia, and Twilight 2000.
In the last day or so Matt Colville and his awesome band of merry people that are collectively known as MCDM have released a new pdf for a beastheart class and monstrous pets!
It has amazing cover art. Very old school in style and feel. I love it.
The whole premise of having monsters as pets and rules to use them sound cool and something I could use straight away in our campaign (if we were actually playing again).
The new class I can take or leave. It will be an option in a future campaign if a player wants to use it. My imagination wasn’t sparked into life by it as the illrigger class had done.
But what did get me excited was when Matt talked about the sporeling companion and showed a render of the mini they had done for it.
A mini you could order from them along with five others they had done.
Immediately I thought “the party are going to get a pet and not know it”. I liked the idea of them coming across Mot the sporeling while they are in the lost Ironstar mine. I just have this image of him following them around the mine just out of sight. Or hiding very badly when they look his way.
And yes I ordered the mini.
That’s all for now on session planning. No real progress at the mo for getting back to the table, and yet more ideas to use!
