It’s that time once again to share my gaming stats as recorded in the fantastic Bgstats app.
I think the big take away is how much I (and the others I played it with) like Strike!
You know the format of these posts they always start with the pretty eye candy of the 3×3.
Then we close the post off with the stats insights for those interested.
Autumn is well and truly upon us. The clocks have gone back, and the English fascination with the weather and the many ways to describe rain kicks into high gear.
October was an ok month for gaming.
Two of the new games I tried during the month ended up with copies in my collection. In fact a third has just been ordered after looking at the 3×3 below. I decided to google if it was possible to get a copy, and before I know it I’m getting a Korean/English version off eBay!
I played Phoenix New Horizon (PHN) last Friday on the clubs get it to the table night. But decided not to say anything at the time. I had a good time playing it. However at the end I was left feeling a bit meh! It was fine.
It’s a worker placement game with a paper thin theme. PHN is meant to have a post apocalyptic theme. For this the theme could really be anything. I felt it didn’t come through.
The action select had a new twist with its upgrading the worker mechanic that also saw more powerful actions becoming available.
The game just didn’t knock my socks off.
Anyway enough waffling. Here’s the raw stats for October.
Just a brief intro. It’s that time again where I share what I have been playing for the month just gone.
At the start of the month I was a bit down on my lack of gaming opportunities for the month ahead.
But as George Formby’s catch phrase goes “turned out nice again” (this really does age me. Growing up back in the day on the whole 3 channels that we had his movies were regularly shown).
In reality this was three gaming sessions and a chance to play some games with Ben at the expo.
Two thirds of the games played this month were new to me. That’s pretty high. Five of the games were trick takers. I like Ben do enjoy a good trick taking game.
I’m hoping June will be a back to normal. But we are now entering that time of year of Summer holidays. So the next couple of months might be just as barren on the gaming opportunities.
Yeah I know the month hasn’t ended yet. But it’s looking very very unlikely that any more gaming is going to take place before the end of the month.
At the moment the Sunday gaming session will not go ahead as I’m the only person showing any interest in going.
Which means no birthday weekend gaming.
Have to say it’s a little disappointing. But this is not a post about feeling sorry for myself.
Let’s celebrate the games I have played this month instead.
That time I get to play is special. And I really should get round to finishing that post about what gaming means to me.
In the meantime while you patiently wait for that post here are the games I played in April.
Looking at the stats for April they are inline with the new norm for my gaming.
I couldn’t help quoting Klopp after Liverpool won their sixth Champions League title for the title of this blog post. It just seemed apt.
February saw some gaming. Not much though. Even less than January.
In total six board games made it to the table.
I was glad to get three of them to the table with a higher player count than my initial plays of them. They did not disappoint.
Getting Zombie Dice back to the table was cool. I really do need to leave this in the game bag, along with Sea Salt and Paper. Two nice little filler games for a club night.
With my upgraded dice cups for Liars Dice I need a better storage solution that would allow it with the neoprene mat for tracking bids to also be in the bag.
But as the search for that elusive bag continues I’m grateful that I got some gaming done this month.
Sadly I won’t be able to play any games tomorrow and record some rare plays for that once every four years opportunity.
But that just sums up my new normal. Hopefully Sunday will keep being a thing gaming wise, and with a bit of luck Tuesday will be a thing too.
Until then here’s hoping for a better March.
January was a slightly better month for me gaming wise than the previous two months. But still the numbers weren’t great.
However I should be grateful that I got to play some games. Especially that some of those games were with Nathan.
Now I am hoping now that Nathan is driving, and has a new car. That Nathan will be able to navigate the British roads to find his way up to mine. Enabling us to play some of the bigger games that are not an option at his due to the clash between game foot print and the size of his table. Or in simpler terms his table isn’t big enough. To be able to at last share my favourite game of all time Scythe with him will be amazing.
What I do find incredible from last months stats is that I played 10 (not 11 as Knock Out Whist aka Trumps was not a new to me game) new to me games. That’s two thirds of the games I played in January.
I have ordered twenty new custom d6 dice for Fenland Gamers members to have. It’s a new design for the six face, that has the club name and year.
Like the previous design (which I still have some left) I’ll be giving them out to regular club members for free.
I even have a design ready to go for UKGE this year to give to club members that make it to the show and the annual club picture that gets taken there.
Plus I want to do a club poker chip. But I have to buy them in quantities of fifty to get them at a reasonable price. They are also a bit more expensive. So they will have to wait until later in the year.
There is only so much I can finance out of my own pocket for this sort of stuff. I’m not on some CEO banker salary.
I like being able to do stuff like this for members.
Whilst I’m talking about Fenland Gamers and this ties in with the last life, the universe, and coffee post, I am testing the waters on the viability of Sunday sessions. At the moment I have created one club event to gauge interest. I’ll write more on that in future I’m sure.
Payday was Friday. Which was just at the right time to enable me to order the latest offering from Stonemaier Games, Wyrmspan, along with the optional deluxe component kit. I’ll leave the neoprene playmats until the next payday, along with the Rolling Realms promo packs.
Interesting enough this release of Wyrmspan has an initial print run of 100,000 copies. That’s a crazy number. Usually (I think I’m remembering this correctly) publishers print twenty to thirty thousand copies of a game initially. Then if the game does well do a second print run.
We know Wingspan sold an insane number of copies (well over 1.5 million by now I would think). But does that incredible success translate to Wyrmspan?
I can’t wait to see the next state of the nation post/email from Stonemaier Games where they give the total number of copies sold for each of their games.
Until Wingspan, Scythe was the bestseller. I’m just curious to see if Apiary and/or Wyrmspan have it in them to challenge Scythe for that number two spot. I am expecting them both to do well.
When I was sharing with a friend at work Friday morning that I had ordered Wyrmspan she said my face lit up. I guess I’m pretty excited about getting the game.
We are two days into the new year. So it’s time to look back at my 2023 gaming.
This post is made possible by the wonderful app bgstats. I’ve been recording all my game plays in the app since 2017. That’s a lot of data. I’ll have to do a post using that data at some point.
So let’s start off with my most played games of the year.
Obviously games like MtG or Dice Masters are going to be in the top spots. It’s nice to see Dice Masters back in the mix. It’s a great game that I’m glad I decided to get back into.
It used to be Jonathan was the person I played games with the most. But since Fenland Gamers has taken off with more people attending in the last year, the opportunities to play have got less.
In steps Dave a new member to the club who joined in August! Dave has become a great friend and opponent in such a short time.
I’m glad I can call all those I’ve played with friends.
Ok here are the raw stats for 2023 as presented by bgstats.
I didn’t complete a single challenge this year. I may let them roll over for 2024. I still find it hard to believe I have so many unplayed games in my collection.
I’m excited to see what 2024 brings gaming wise.
Happy New Year.
I hope 2024 is a better year than 2023 for everyone. Hopefully that will be the case when the Tories get obliterated at the ballot box.
After much deliberation I have finally decided which of the 43 new to me games that I played in 2023 is my game of the year.
It wasn’t an easy decision.
But before I reveal the results of that deliberation, last year I did a couple of “minor” awards. So this year I thought I’d repeat those two categories before doing the big reveal.
I played 4 new roll and writes this year. A drop from last year. However these four new games were pretty good.
Here are the four contenders. They are a great demonstration of how varied this genre of board games can be.
The winner is Motor City.
Motor City is the follow up to last years winner Three Sisters. It’s definitely the most complex of the four games.
Like it’s two predecessors it can seem a bit overwhelming with its two pads. I felt it wasn’t as combotastic as Three Sisters. But it’s still a very nice ‘on the heavier side’ roll and write. It feels totally different to the previous two in the series.
I didn’t buy many expansions this year. There were the promo packs for Rolling Realms. But I’ve not got them to the table. So ineligible for this award.
I think there can only be one winner for this award this year, and it feels a bit of a cheat. It is touted as a stand alone expansion. The winner is Dune Imperium Uprising.
I love Dune Imperium and I love the changes introduced in Uprising.
And now for the big decision, and the one you are really interested in.
My game of 2023 is…
Lord of the Rings the living card game revised edition.
I think what swayed it for LoTR is Nathan. When I played it with him Nathan was keen to play the game and take on the next scenario. He asked to play it again.
And even though I’ve played one or two of the other contenders with Nathan also. It was that reaction and the fond memories of playing with him that contributed to the decision.
Plus as I’ve written in previous posts I’m a Tolkien fanboy. So I love the theme.
Even with just the revised core set FFG included a fun to play campaign with some nice variety in the scenarios. It was interesting to see FFG play with different mechanics.
What’s your game of 2023?
Each year (usually a bit later than this post) I choose my game of the year (GOTY) from the new to me games that I have played throughout the year.
I’ve decided to shake things up a little this year by dedicating two posts to it.
There is this post giving you the contenders for this year. Which will be followed by a post announcing my GOTY.
Let’s start by using the cool 3×3 image the bgstats can generate of the top 9 played new to me games of 2023.
I should point out that being in this 3×3 is no guarantee that the winner will be one of these games.
What surprised my with this 3×3 is Stonemaier Games account for a third of the games in this top 9 played.
Ok it’s time for the raw data showing all the new to me games played in 2023.
Technically I have only played 43 new to me games in 2023. Bgstats records Dice Masters as a new to me game. Which we all know it isn’t. But my plays of Dice Masters was before I had started using the bgstats app to record all my game plays.
I also shouldn’t include 51st State Ultimate Edition as a new to me game. It’s just a new edition (no changes to the game, it’s just a fancy version) of a game I’ve already played.
So excluding these two games narrows the field only slightly. It doesn’t make the decision any easier.
Which of these would be your GOTY?