Year in Review 2011

Happy New Year!

2011 will go down as the first year I recorded my plays on BGG!

Games Played by Month

    January       106
    February       98   
    March           38   
    April             46   
    May              25   
    June              34   
    July               57   
    August          67   
    September     25   
    October         11
    November      8   
    December     32

Total:         547

January and February are the times when TotalCon and TempleCon happen, and obviously August is the WBC.

Top 5 Most Played:

    Dominion       61
    Brass              51
    Puerto Rico    43
    Stone Age      33
    Power Grid    29

You might notice that all of these games exist on Bretspielwelt... I went through a heavy Dominion phase there, and I was really happy they brought Puerto Rico back to it.

Best New Games from 2011

No Retreat! - simple, elegent, yet not simplistic. A great wargame I'd love to play a lot more.

Navegador - I love the market in this game, where players can affect the market in both directions. A game that definitely has different paths to victory, and probably my favorite art in any boardgame. (Although the new reprint of 1830 is excellent as well!)

Troyes - played this on two separate occasions months apart, still contemplating a purchase. I also love the art in this game!

Biggest Comeback Games

After playing into the semifinals of Agricola at the WBC, I found a new appreciation for the game and have been eager to play it a ton. I'm excited to have found the online site http://www.boiteajeux.net/ which has asynchronous play there. If anyone wants to start up a game with me, let me know and I'll get people together.

I finally decided to give Through the Ages another chance as well, and am seeing what it is people love about it.

Biggest Surprise

Somehow I only played Twilight Struggle 11 times in 2011, and not a single game of Combat Commander, despite getting the first Pacific expansion and recent the Resistance boxed set.

Finally Got to Play Awards

 

Indonesia - I'd been waiting to play this forever, and finally played it at Eric's twice in two days. I liked it but didn't love it, and wish it was easier to get and a little easier on the eyes. I guess I feel like I'd rather play 1830 or 1856.

Battlestar Galactica - while I don't love the idea of a co-op game, this one really delivered. Having just watched the whole series didn't hurt!

Vegas Showdown - it's true, I love auction games! Why does this have to be a cheaply produced Hasbro game?

In the Year of the Dragon - finally snuck this one in before the end of the year. I definitely enjoyed it! Surprised that I never see people playing this at WBC.

Disappointments of the Year

 

Merkator - beautifully produced but something about it just seemed soulless.

Urban Sprawl - the chaos in this game is unacceptable. And this coming from a lover of Combat Commander.

Fighting Formations - I liked it but expected to love it. Too fiddly and seemed to be too tough for the Russian in most scenarios.

Game I Most Regretted Playing

Rallyman - I'm not going to say anything about this one because I like it so little.

Games I Wished I Had Played

Ardennes '44 - I love this game and would love to play it a few times in a row to get to know it better.

Combat Commander - as mentioned earlier!

War of the Ring - I need to give that game more love... and it just got reprinted!

Steam - how could I not have played this once?

Hammer of the Scots

Macao - I liked this in 2011... surprised I never played it again.

Friedrich/Maria - someday, I will play these...

Kingsburg - I see people play it all the time, and yet, I haven't.

Rommel in the Desert - someday I will get to this classic!

WBC Summary

I made the most semifinals I've ever made at 6, but could only play in 5 of them. (Power Grid, Le Havre, Brass, Princes of Glorence, Agricola, Caylus) I really wanted to make 2 finals for the first time, but it wasn't in the cards, and I only made it to the finals of Power Grid and came in 5th. My goal is to someday be in two finals in one year or finally win a tournament. I'm clearly good enough at games to make it to the semis of any game I put some work into, but I'm not in that top tier of players yet.

Wargame Summary

With GBGers this year: I played Twilight Struggle with Asher, Napoleon at Waterloo with Eric, Fighting Formations with Marty, Europe Engulfed with Andy Y., Labyrinth with Andy L. and Marty x2, Wilderness War with Marty, Saratoga with Andy, Paths of Glory with Eric, Napoleonic Wars with Marty, Dirk, Tom and Rob, No Retreat with Andy L.

2011 was a great year for gaming. I probably leaned more towards Eurogames this year, but 2012 will be the first year I finally go to WAM!

I'm looking forward to another year of great games and fun times with friends!

Chris

December Update

Ouch, I have committed the sin I had hoped to avoid - ignoring my blog for far too long!

My fall has been very busy with working and exercising, but there is a lot of exciting gaming coming up. I should be able to get quite a bit in during winter break.

Most of my gaming has been my PBEM games. Here's what I've had going on:


Twilight Struggle Ladder: I'm in my third game in the ladder, and this time I'm the Americans again. We're going into turn 8 now, and I'm behind on VPs with -13, but my board position is pretty decent as long as I don't lose to Wargames. It should be an exciting finish!

 





Washington's War Ladder: This league just started up, and I jumped right in. I have the Americans in this game too, but I'm getting thoroughly crushed after the first 4 turns. The Congress got dispersed, but he hasn't really moved much - just out pointed me. I just added them up and he has a 50-41 advantage in Ops on me, plus the ones I lost when I couldn't do anything with Congress dispersed. This is going to be a good chance to see if I can figure out a way to break back into the game after a bad start.

Through the Ages: I'm giving this game another chance, despite the minor issues I have with it. There's definitely something I don't understand about what it takes to win. I got to play one game with Bronwen and Rich S., and one game with Patrick and Tom, and got crushed in both. Patrick and Tom convinced me to get into the online website for the game, which is quite fun. I got destroyed by them again, and hopefully learned something from it. I'm still playing another game with two people randomly, and I got the Michaelangelo-Hanging Gardens combo I've won with in the past. I'm curious to see if I can win again with it.

Agricola: I discovered a website for asynchronous Agricola play, which is awesome. I'm playing a game with two random people, and played a 2 player with Bronwen. If you like the game, you need to check this out: http://www.boiteajeux.net/. I took Bronwen out, and have an interesting game going where I'm doing grain and veggies after getting the Seasonal Worker out. (get a grain when you take Day Laborer)

I'm also playing three Brass games online as well, which is always great. I'm in a bit of a funk and not doing as well as usual in those games. I can win at Brass when things generally go my way, but when the luck is a little off, I can't quite overcome it yet.

 

Also coming up soon: TempleCon (Feb. 3-5) and TotalCon (Feb. 23-26)!!!

Chris

No Retreat!

I've been really excited about the new GMT deluxe edition treatment of the Victory Point Games game No Retreat!: The Russian Front.  What appeals to me about it is that it is an elegant, but not simplistic take on the entire East Front. It's very playable, and has really interesting "design for effect" aspects.

I was able to pick up my copy at WBC and after chomping at the bit to play it, I got the chance at SNEW, with Nick Avtges, who had played it a few times himself at WBC. He was a great teacher - even though I had read the rules a number of times, it's easy to forget minor things the first time you play a game, so it's good to have one played slightly more experienced. We ended up playing the first scenario with me as the Russians and he won via sudden death VPs - it turned out we misread the rules and he was actually short by one, but it gave me a sense of how combat worked. So, we switched sides and played again. The second time went the distance (5 turns out of the campaign games 22+ turns.) and I ended up one victory point short of victory. We then tried the second scenario which covers turns 7 through 10, and I once again lost a close one.

I taught Jerad No Retreat! yesterday afternoon. He played the Germans and I gave him a few hints on the first few turns to get him started and to help him make effective attacks. After that he did a great job on his own, and we had a great, tense game.

In No Retreat there are a number of ways to win and one of them is to control three out of five objective hexes. These hexes give an extra left column shift so are extra hard to take, and smart Russian play puts fortifiable units there, which ignore retreat results on the CRT once fortified. Unfortunately I was not able to get one of those units to Sevastopol, and he was able to send a Panzer division down there to clear it out in the Spring of 1942. In the last clear weather turn of 1942, Jerad swept a bunch of units into the Moscow area and managed to push me out in a way that led to no way to counterattack on my half of the turn. Since he had taken Leningrad in 1941, the German juggernaut got an Objective Victory on turn 9!

Apparently I'm not very good at No Retreat yet, but I'm finding it a ton of fun and highly recommend it!

Chris

WBC Wrap-Up

The end of the WBC was fun and exciting, and I was only somewhat zombie-fied. I played in the Princes of Florence semi-final and the Brass semifinal, but couldn't pull of the magic this year. Unfortunately I'm hazy on exactly what went down. I played ok but not perfect in both games. I needed to play a game purely for enjoyment with no stakes, so I jumped into the third round of Washington's War just to get a game of it in.

I played an awesome guy also named Chris who was from England, and we ended up choosing the opposite nationalities for the game! My experience with the British paid off as I was able to easily push him out of the New England region and not let him back in. I was able to create a southern diversion with Cornwallis coming into Virginia, which was enough to keep him busy before the Wars End card made the game end early. I'm starting to appreciate Washington's War more, although I still wish there were more interesting event cards. I still feel like too much of the game is spent arbitrarily moving PCs around, and not enough thinking as if you were Washington or Howe. So I have to think of it more like a light strategy game, and less like a typical wargame... and accept it for what it is.

The rest of the day was spent relaxing and doing a little open gaming. I ended up playing a three player game of Glen More with my friends Stephanie and Richard. It was a cute little game with a decent number of decisions... kind of like Carcassone/Alhambra but with the river mechanic from Egizia in terms of how you acquire your tiles. And with a resource collection/management aspect because when you add a tile to your board, you activate nearby tiles, which might generate resources or convert resources (like corn into whiskey). I didn't feel compelled to run out and buy it, but it's worth a few more plays.

I also played a few games of Dominion at some point with a nice woman and her 11 year old son. He had just learned the game and had figured out some pretty sophisticated stuff about it pretty quickly. I was impressed!

 

I was hoping to get someone to play a wargame with me, and amazingly at midnight Andy Latto walks by, and I say "Labyrinth?" and he sits right down faster than I've ever seen anyone agree to a game. We had an epic back and forth game where it came down to the very last few card plays, but my jihadists were able to win a victory check at the end of one deck.

To recap, here are the tournament games I played. (S) means semifinal, (F) means final.

   Hannibal 3-2
   Wilderness War 0-2
   Saratoga 0-1
   Washington's War 1-0
   San Juan 3-1

   Power Grid 1st, 2nd, 2nd, 1st (S), 5th (F)
   Le Havre 1st, 1st, 2nd (S)
   Brass 2nd, 3rd, 3rd (S)
   Princes of Florence 1st, 2nd, 3rd (S)
   Agricola 1st, 3rd (S)
   Caylus 1st (skipped semis)
   El Grande 5th

On Sunday, we had a nice lunch out at Red Lobster with one of our WBC friends Laura and a bunch of people she knows, then had a nice drive back with Stephanie in the car with us. Another great year of gaming down... and a second plaque, for my fifth place finish in Power Grid.

This WBC showed me that I have a second game I'm good at, Power Grid, in addition to Princes of Florence. My results in Power Grid have been pretty consistent, with lots of 1st and 2nd places in games. I reached the semis last year and got 2nd there, and the finals this year. I discovered a new found love for Agricola, and am looking to play it more; and I don't like El Grande as much as I once did. In wargaming, I had enjoyable games of Saratoga and Washington's War, came very close to getting a plaque in Hannibal, and learned I have a lot to learn about Wilderness War, if I make that commitment. Unfortunately I once again had to miss the Twilight Struggle tournament for the Power Grid semis, but this year it worked out better!

Chris

WBC Day Seven

I'm writing this after getting back to Boston - I didn't have the time/energy to keep up the daily blogging!

The Power Grid semis were a great game played with great opponents, including Meghan who I had played earlier in heat 1. We played on the Korea map and I won! This game me my first final table of Power Grid and a guaranteed plaque since the top 6 get them.

We went straight to the final after a short break. The Japan map we played on was extremely tough and brain burning. You can start in only 6 specific cities on the map, and you are allowed to start two different networks, even later in the game if you only started with 1 start city and never entered a second.

That made me miss heat 3 of the Agricola tournament, but it didn't matter since my 1 win was enough to make it to the semis. I definitely felt outclassed in that game, but had a lot of fun watching the Occupations fly. There are a number of players who know every card by heart and can play nearly instantaneously. I was at least competitive, tying for last with a score that was something like 41-37-32-32. I did enjoy getting the guy who gives you an extra clay when you get wood or clay, then putting out the guy who lets you get food for clay. This game definitely made me appreciate Agricola more and sparked me to want to play it more regularly and learn it more deeply.

The final game of the night was the second heat of Princes of Florence. I got to play with a guy I knew from way back in the Magic days, Ed Fear, and a few other nice folk. I won this one, with Ed coming in second. Somehow I either win or come in second in most games I play in heats of Princes of Florence and Power Grid, so clearly they are my best games. I need to step it up in other games!

Chris

WBC Day Six

Thursday at the WBC feels like the tip of the mountain - you're right in the thick of things, but you know you are getting closer to the end of the con than the start. That said, I try to savor the experience as best I can.

The first game of the day was the final heat of Power Grid. This time it was Benelux, and I got put at a table with Bill Crenshaw, who I've played at least twice before in Power Grid and talked to about his game, Manifest Destiny. He's a tough Power Grid player, and I once again came in second, giving me two seconds and a first leading into tomorrow morning's semifinal. I'm pretty consistent at getting firsts and seconds in the heats in Power Grid - I think I had a similar record last year and got second in the semifinal to Raphael Lehrer on the Italy board. Tomorrow will be Korea, which I've never even played before...

After a snack, I entered Caylus and got assigned a table with my wife Bronwen and a guy named Jim who was a really fun opponent. He hadn't played Caylus in a few years, and I beat them pretty handily. (I hope Bronwen isn't going to ever read this... )

That was followed by two back-to-back games of Le Havre. The second heat had Grant Ladue, who I've played Wilderness War with and talked to on wargameroom.com, and two nice older guys who hadn't played very often. We ended up having to cut the game short, and since none of them cared to advance and they agreed I had a good set-up for the end game, they gave me the win. The second game was the semifinal with Mike Kaltman (who is also the GM of Caylus) and a guy who was in my Power Grid game earlier. We had a great, tight game, but Mike clearly knows the game well and got a well deserved win, mostly by building steel ships and luxury liners. I did the most shipping I've ever done in Le Havre, which was interesting, and took second. That should make me come in 5th or 6th overall...

I decided to forgo the second heat of Agricola because I didn't feel like playing a 5 player game. I went to the Lampeter room and signed up for the Saratoga tournament, which I often don't get to play because of its usual conflict with Twilight Struggle (which last year and this year conflicted with Power Grid semis, sigh.). I got paired up with Chris Byrd, who just learned the game, and we had a fun, tense game dancing around the edge of Freeman's Farm trying to flank each other. He captured the Ottawa Indians in the midgame, and Gate's wing was released as early as possible. His attack along the Hudson to try to get my baggage train ended up costing me the game as he did a step loss to a unit there. I probably should have put more thought into how to defense that region. I wish I had more WBC time to find some fun games of this series. Someone out there has got to want to play them.

Tomorrow: Power Grid semis, Agricola heat 2, Agricola semis, and Princes of Florence heat 2!!!

Chris

WBC Day Five

Another exhiliarating and exhausting day at WBC! I'll write more later but here's the wrapup:

I came in 2nd in the closest game of Brass ever: 141-141-140-115, losing by 1 on the income track.

I came in 2nd in Power Grid on the Central Europe map, losing to the GM and two-time winner, Jim Castonguay... I'll accept that loss!

I reluctantly played Agricola, because I found out it was 5 player games, and somehow I pulled it out, mostly through mastery of animals. I'm not great at Agricola, but I have my moments where it all clicks.

I played a snoozer of an El Grande game and got destroyed. I don't understand how to play well, and don't really enjoy the game all that much, I've decided.

That was followed up by a fun game of Princes of Florence with two strong players, David Platnick and Greg Thatcher. David crushed us with 7 works from the two seat, and I came in second, beating Greg on tiebreak money.

The end of the night was a late start Brass at 9 pm, that ended at 12:30. I got to play with Bruce again, which was great. He crushed us this time with a score like 160-120-111-105.

Awesome times, and I'm glad to be in three semis: Power Grid, Agricola, Le Havre.

Chris