These are the games I played at least ten times this past year. I've combined families of games where I have logged them separately but they are really the same game, just with expansions or legacy forms.
- Kingdomino (41)
- Pathfinder Adventure Card Game: Core Set and Curse of the Crimson Throne (41)
- BONK (19)
- Clank! A Deck-Building Adventure and Legacy (23)
- Azul (14)
- Dungeons & Dragons: Tempe of Elemental Evil (14)
- Quiddler (14)
- Thunderstone Quest (14)
- Call to Adventure (13)
- Arcadia Quest (12)
- The Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle-Earth (12)
- Fabled Fruit (11)
- Gloomhaven (11)
- The Mind (11)
- Fireball Island: The Curse of Vul-Kar (10)
One of the major milestones this year is that my second son (9) has been able to join in much more of the "core gamer" games. In some ways, this started Christmas 2018, when he joined my wife, my oldest son, and me in playing Charterstone, which remains one of my favorite gaming memories. Over the year, he learned Middle Earth Quest, Castles of Mad King Ludwig, and Thunderstone, Quest. My two older sons and I played through the first campaign of Journeys in Middle Earth and a campaign of Arcadia Quest, and with my wife, we played a campaign of Temple of Elemental Evil and got 7th Continent back out and played—and beat—the first curse. My wife and I had tried that one when I first got the game and had no such luck. The four of us also played through the new core set and expansion for Pathfinder Adventure Card Game this summer. That was probably too much PACG all at once, as we were pretty burned out by the end.
One of the other big winners this year was clearly Kingdomino. This game is fun for everybody, including my youngest son (4). The fact that he plays it, and generally plays it well, makes it a go-to game for family board game time. My third son (6) is showing great promise in games as well. He learned to play Ticket to Ride this year, and he also learned the basics of deckbuilding games, including the mash shuffle. He loves to play Clank!, which is great, because that also is a consistently fun game. Perhaps there is some irony, then, that as much as I am enjoying Clank! Legacy, I am finding it less consistent than vanilla Clank!. Just last night, I messed up a rule, which had material consequences; every legacy game I have played fails the robustness test in the face of tired or confused players.
My oldest son and I hit a wall in Gloomhaven recently, where neither one of us is about to level up, and we're just not sure where to go next to solve the deeper mysteries of the world. I bought the expansion but still haven't painted the figure. One of us would have to become the new character, and the other person would stay locked in their other, which is already at or near maximum level. I feel like we should try the expansion anyway, in part because I just read Childres' end-of-year blog post about it, but part of me wonders if we would have more fun with a reboot once the sequel releases.
As of today, my games h-index is 22, meaning that there are 22 games that I have played 22 times. My player h-index is 17, meaning that there are 17 people with whom I have played 17 times.
Let's look at how my top games of all time have changed. Last year, I included those games that I had played 20 or more times, but that list keeps getting longer. Hence, I'm going to make the cut at 25 this year.
- Gloomhaven (66)
- Pathfinder Adventure Card Game, all versions (57)
- Crokinole (56)
- Animal Upon Animal (54)
- Clank! A Deck-Building Adventure and Legacy (53)
- Carcassonne (44)
- Kingdomino (41)
- Camel Up (40)
- Rhino Hero: Super Battle (37)
- Labyrinth (36)
- Thunderstone Quest (36)
- Quiddler (33)
- Runebound Third Edition (33)
- Reiner Knizia's Amazing Flea Circus (32)
- Terror in Meeple City (30)
- Dungeons & Dragons: Temple of Elemental Evil (28)
- Stuffed Fables (27)
- Go Nuts for Donuts (25)
- Obstacles (25)
- Race for the Galaxy (25)
I think that this is a healthy mix of kids' games and strategy games for someone with four boys. It's still the case that one of my very favorite games is Mage Knight: The Board Game, but that one is harder to get to the table, so at 21 plays, it didn't make the cut. It's at the same level as Champions of Midgard, which the four older members of the family all love and which, despite its preponderance of pieces, we can get set up and torn down faster because everyone can help.
This year, I also logged some of the video games I played (and also, some of the books I read), inspired by Michael Bayne's post and project last year. I even started the year logging my general activity, but I found this too cumbersome and not interesting enough to continue. There were a few games that I dabbled in, particularly free ones from the Epic Games Store. Other games, I played more seriously as a hobbyist. Briefly, these were Just Cause 3, Star Control Origins, Slay the Spire, Donut County, Dead Cells, Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden, Thimbleweed Park, Minit, Defense Grid: The Awakening, SteamWorld Quest: Hand of Gilgamech, and Disco Elysium. I could write more about these video games, but I think for now I just want to mention the contrast between the last two. Hand of Gilgamech was entirely competent. I enjoyed playing it, but the writing, characters, and plot were absolutely uninteresting. While not painful or cringeworthy, the dialog felt completely uninspired. Compare this to Disco Elysium, where in the first three minutes of gameplay, you have a rich vocabulary, distinct character voices, and a compelling hook. Disco Elysium, which I bought because so many people have said it's really good, is really good. There are parts that I think are incongruent, which I would like to write about at some point, but that's not going to be today. The fact that one can talk about incongruity, though, implies that the world and story are worth talking about. One final video game note: Mutant Year Zero's story surprised me at one point, which was a great delight for a jaded grognard like me.
Thanks for reading. May you have an excellent year in games!
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