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.
Not many board games played as previous months. But like the good old days of when I was playing MtG I got in a few games of Star Wars Unlimited.
Right here is the pretty 3×3 of the games I got to play this month.
Here is the rather shorter than usual stats behind the 3×3 image above.
Just a brief intro. It’s that time again where I share what I have been playing for the month just gone.
Well I certainly played more this month than in recent months.
It has felt I’ve played lots more than I actually did.
The Tuesday lcg/tcg/ccg evening is back. And I’m loving it.
There have been some great moments through out the month. I’m lucky to have such great friends willing to share those gaming moments with.
Here are the raw stats for July.
This month has been weird.
I knew it was going to be lacking on the gaming front.
Work was giving me shifts that really weren’t conducive to playing games with others.
However gaming finds a way, and I managed to play some games. More than I expected.
There was even a last day of the month game session with Diego and Marcin. Which seemed to mirror the last day of May at UKGE and playing games with Ben and Harrison. These two last minute flurry of gaming pushed up the stats for both months making them look less sad than they were.
Luckily after this weeks holiday and four shifts of lates I make the jump back to early shifts. Which means a return to club night and being able to start back up the mid week lcg/ccg night. So there is a silver lining to gaming.
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.
Two days off over the Easter weekend have allowed me to get in some late gaming for the March stats.
Saturday saw me meeting up with Jeff and Charlene at the usual place to play a game or two.
Our first game was Arabella. Which if Jeff hadn’t got his final objective card I’d have won. And my victory would have been oh so sweet. Unintentional, and literally the games equivalent of winning Viticulture (base game) by not making any wine (which I have done).
All game I had the starting engine and a level 2 engine. Eventually Jeff and Charlene bought some carriages so my early investment in their shares started to pay off. But still with no carriages my dividends were worthless to them both.
This games end was triggered by Jeff reaching the end of the 10 money track on his sheet.
Somehow until we picked up Jeff was owed another objective card I was winning! It was insane. I would have easily have bet money that Charlene and Jeff were doing much better than me, and I was going to score hardly anything.
So yes Jeff won.
We followed Arabella up with Dandelions. This was probably the worst I’ve done in a game of this. I didn’t score a single majority. Jeff won this too.
The afternoons gaming was wrapped up with me introducing Ship, Captain, Crew to Jeff and Charlene.
Ship, Captain, Crew is fastly becoming a favourite little filler game. Four or five rounds take hardly any time to play. I won this time breaking Jeff’s run of victories.
I keep saying this but it’s true I had a great afternoon gaming with two great friends.
Sunday saw me meeting up with Charlene and her daughter once again at the usual spot to yep play games.
Despite being a relaxed afternoon of gaming we got five games to the table in about two and a half hours.
Our first two games were new to me.
Spots was a cool, light, dice game. It had Roll for it, Age Of War vibes with the completing dogs, with a nice buried dice mechanic that added a push your luck element to the game.
The other new game was Kohaku a tile drafting themed around making a koi pond. This definitely had Kingdomino vibes to it. A very quick light and fun game.
We followed up with a game of all in Parks. So both the Nightfall and Wildlife expansions were in play.
Dandelions hit the table next so that Annabelle could try the game, with a view to them teaching their Nan the game on an upcoming holiday.
Our final game of the fun afternoon gaming was, you guessed it, Ship, Captain, Crew.
The first batch (there will be more over the years) of a club poker chip arrived.
When it comes to this sort of stuff I’m prioritising those that attend club nights regularly and are long time members.
The BattleTech Alpha Strike Starter Box arrived. I’m writing more about this in another post. The counter pack has also arrived. But it’s fair to say that I’m dipping my toes into this game.
I also picked up a Dice Masters collection which I need to sort through. And I know this sounds like a cop out but this too will be the subject of another blog post.
Finally whilst waiting for repairs to my car I made the mistake of walking into Waterstones. Where seeing they still had a prerelease kit bought into the latest ccg to hit stores Star Wars Unlimited.
I’d tried so hard to not go down this rabbit hole. My wallet can’t take another ccg. But here I am dipping my toes.
Well the late flurry of weekend gaming gave me probably my best months gaming in over six months. The makes me happy.
Stats for the month.
All the games played in March.
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.