Games played in 2007...

I shocked myself when printing this list. It really seems like 2007 was an "off" year for gaming. Here's my list of games and played:

Travel Blokus, 9
Carcassonne, 6
Star Wars Miniatures Starship Battles, 5
Alhambra, 4
Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers, 3
Coloretto, 3
GIPF, 3
Puerto Rico, 3
TAMSK, 3
Great Space Race, The, 2
Hey! That's My Fish!, 2
Nexus Ops, 2
Pinochle, 2
Settlers of Catan, The, 2
Through the Desert, 2
Age of Empires III: The Age of Discovery, 1
Antike, 1
Carcassonne: The City, 1
CATAN 3D Collector's Edition 1
Caylus 1
Caylus Magna Carta 1
Cities and Knights of Catan, The 1
Civilization, 1
Formula Dé, 1
Mare Nostrum, 1
Mykerinos, 1
Niagara, 1
Railroad Tycoon, 1
Saint Petersburg, 1
Star Wars Miniatures, 1
Ticket to Ride, 1
Traders of Genoa, The, 1
Twilight Imperium 3rd Edition, 1

That's 69 games played, and 32 different titles. Compare that to 140 games played in 2006, and 40 different titles.

Sorted by TIME, the list would look something like:

Twilight Imperium, 1 game, 9 hours
Caylus, 1 game, 4 hours
Pinocle, 2 games, 12 hours
Star Wars Miniature Starship Battles, 5 games, 10 hours
Puerto Rico, 3 games, 8 hours

Still... it was an off year for gaming. But the trend was obviously towards few, but longer games in 2007.

Too many games?

Great article over on boardgamenews.com about the subject of "too many games." As a person with 140+ games in his collection, I've asked myself this many times. W. Eric Martin tackles it here, with the intro quoted below.

"W. Eric Martin: Too Much Is Never Enough

Occasional BGN columnist Ryan Bretsch took on the role of firestarter recently in an online mailing list about games and posed the following questions:

1. Are there too many boardgame companies out there today?
2. Are there too many game releases coming out each year?
3. Do you feel the games hobby industry can support the number of new game releases that are now appearing each year?
4. Do you feel that newly released games are labeled as “hot,” then quickly supplanted by the “next big thing”?

My short answers to these questions: No, No, No, and No. My long answers to these questions are more nuanced..."

Want list...

Boardgamegeek has a great "wishlist" feature that allows you to rank (1-5) your interest in any game on the site. As I become aware of new titles (usually through Boardgamenews or by surfing Thoughthammer) I'll head over to the 'geek, check them out, and rank them.

Here's some games that I am tracking and would like to own:

1. St. Petersburg Expansion
Expansion to the excellent St. Petersburg card game. Haven't played this face-to-face much, but I love the game on Brettspielcafe, probably have played it more than any other game than Settlers on-line. This inexpensive expansion is a must have, although not released yet from Rio Grande.

2. Roads and Boats
I was all pumped to get this when it was re-released last year. It's a monster game, that I've heard compared to SimCity, without the computer managing all the tiny details. I have too many complex games that never get played, but some day I have to get this nuts-and-bolts game and try to play it.

3. China - Das Duel
This two-player conversion of the 3-5 player China (Michael Shacht, developer of Hansa and Spiel de Jahre Zooloreto) is a must-have. I have an extra copy of China's pieces mounted in a shadow box in my game room along with the map in a frame.

4. Gipf Project - set 1
I love the Gipf series of abstract games. They are elegantly designed, beautifully constructed games that play in under 20 minutes. They can be connected together to form one large game by the use of "potentials", pieces that stack and connect various moves from other games in the series. There are three small expansions, and although I am not sure I'll get to play with them often (until Grayson gets a little older perhaps) they are inexpensive and easy to integrate.


5. Space Dealer
This game sounds wacky. Uses sand timers to control turns in some type of space-ship assembly game? I'm in!

6. Pitchcar
Racing game where you "flick" the cards around the track, and the bounce around off of rubber-band "walls". A dexterity game that has a couple of expansions (including a loop, and jumps), and sounds like a hoot! Would be a great ice-breaker for our Gathering of Friends.

7. Sid Meier's Civilization: the Card Game
Can only get this game inside a deluxe edition of the latest computer game. Someday perhaps it will be sold off the shelf, or I can grab it on closeout somewhere. I love Civilization, have played all it's versions on the computer, have the Avalon Hill edition, the Eagle Games edition... why not a card game?

Alert: Barnes and Noble clearance!

Just spotted this Geeklist over at Boardgamegeek - apparently it's finally time for Barnes and Noble to blow-out all those Euro games that they've been sitting on since the holidays. Word is that they are starting at 50% off - adding 6% sales tax, that's still cheaper than Thoughthammer.

Several spot-checks there in January by Kevin and myself indicated that the staff had no idea of what they were going to do with games, and we heard claims that they could not send them back to their distributors.

There are several games that would be of interest to us, including Puerto Rico, Settlers, Roborally, etc. Check out the Geeklist for descriptions and ratings, and report back if you find any!

Games played 2007 Geeklist

I created a Geeklist for the games I played in 2006, along with comments about the experiences. Very cool feature of Boardgamegeek, check it out at the link below:

*** Link deleted, due to a system crash at boardgamegeek.com on 2/8/07

Games played, 2006

List of games played in 2006:

ZÈRTZ	14
Carcassonne	10
Star Wars Miniatures Starship Battles	10
DVONN	8
Alhambra	6
Capitol	6
Chess	6
Race Day	6
Settlers of Catan, The	6
Canasta Caliente	4
Cosmic Encounter	4
Starfarers of Catan	4
TAMSK	4
Through the Desert	4
Euphrates & Tigris Card Game	3
Hansa	3
Mykerinos	3
Ticket to Ride	3
Cartagena	2
Caylus	2
Great Space Race, The	2
King's Breakfast	2
Lost Cities	2
Masons	2
MLB Sports Clix	2
Nexus Ops	2
Pente	2
Puerto Rico	2
Railroad Tycoon	2
Stratego	2
Formula Dé	1
Liar's Dice	1
Pinochle	1
Power Grid	1
San Juan	1
Scrabble	1
St. Petersburg	1
Taboo	1
Vinci	1
Zathura: Adventure is Waiting	1

Twenty-six times I played something from the Gipf series, Zertz, Dvonn or Tamsk. Looking at this in early January, I decided to buy Gipf in January at the Compleat Strategist in NYC, and I am glad I did. Grayson took to it immediately, and I am pretty sure these games will be the most played in 2007. They take 15-20 minutes if you don't take terribly long to contemplate your moves, and they can be connected together to form a larger game with the use of "potentials".

Carcassone was the second most played game, surprisingly we only played it 10 times. We played only the standard game, but one of the main expansions. I like Traders and Builders the best.

Star Wars Minatures and Race Day, both collectible minatures games, came up 16 times total. Fun for a month or so, I am not sure we will get back to them in 2007. Perhaps if Tab takes an interest.

The "big" games, Caylus, Puerto Rico, Power Grid, and Railroad Tycoon came up only a few times this year, which I guess is not that surprising. Given a choice, I could play just the games for the next 10 years. But they are heavier, and finding adult opponents is the challenge. Perhaps in 2007 this will change.