2023 20×5 Final! Bonus 12×1 Update

I completed my 20×5 for 2023! Woo! I actually finished it all up at the fall Board Game Geek convention, getting in my final plays of Petrichor as well as Eclipse: Second Dawn for the Galaxy. If you have never been to a BGG gaming event, it’s worth making the trip. Which, for me, is a short drive down I-35 so there’s that… Continue reading “2023 20×5 Final! Bonus 12×1 Update”

2022 20×5 Review

In 2021 I set up a 10×10 goal for board games. It was fun, but I didn’t actually complete the goal of playing 10 specific games 10 times over the year (made it to 72). I still had a successful gaming year (played 174 games, many of which were not on the 10×10) but I didn’t like the fact that I “failed.” In reviewing my gaming history for the year, I realized I had a lot of games I played 4-6 times. Hm. A 10×10 results in 100 games being played. A 20×5 also results in 100 games being played, but with more variety. I decided to try that for 2022. I thought I made the concept up. I didn’t. 🙂 There are plenty of different configurations that people use; a 10×10 just seems to be the most popular.

How did my 20×5 go for 2022? Fantastic! Not only did I finish, but I had my best gaming year ever since returning to the hobby. Continue reading “2022 20×5 Review”

Forty-One Minutes To Go…

As I type this, there are only 41 minutes remaining in the current Kickstarter campaign for Everdell. By the time you read this, the campaign will no doubt be closed. I own the Collector Edition of all of the prior Everdell games (where available). It would seem that this would be a slam-dunk for me to back, right? So far, I haven’t. I am hoping that writing out my thoughts here will clarify whether I am (or am not) going to back, and why. Continue reading “Forty-One Minutes To Go…”

Board Game Geek Top 100 Checklist, Part 9

I have written a series of posts looking at the Board Game Geek (BGG) top 100 games, checking to see if I had the game in my collection and talking a little bit about each one, if I could. At the end of the first eighty games covered I owned 32 for a 40% ownership rate. I also have had four games that I formerly owned but had sold, so they didn’t get counted. Today I will cover games ranked from 20 up to 11.

For all posts in this series check for the BGG Top 100 tag. Continue reading “Board Game Geek Top 100 Checklist, Part 9”

Bargain Disappointment

There are several Half Price Books stores in our area, which I like. I like to read, I like to listen to music, I like to watch movies, and I like board games. They have all of these things. They buy used and resell, but they also sell new items on occasion as well. (For example, right now they’re carrying the board game Scythe and Sagrada and others still in shrink wrap.)

This past week was one of their thrice-yearly progressive sales. They start with a 20% off a single item coupon for Monday and Tuesday, move to 30% off a single item for Wednesday and Thursday, graduate to 40% off a single item on Friday and Saturday, and finish with a 50% off coupon (again, a single item) for Sunday. I will frequently visit several stores early in the week to scope out what is available, and if possible; I will even put items on hold to purchase later in the week. (They will hold items for up to three days.) It’s a great way to get bargains, and since we have about a dozen stores in our area the selections are often quite good.

This week my take included a copy of Overlords of Infamy still in shrink-wrap, a copy of the third edition of Red November, a copy of Mastermind that was brand new, a copy of an interesting Hawaiian-themed game called Haleakala that has superb quality components, and among a few other things a copy of Nuns on the Run.

I had tried to buy a copy of Nuns earlier this year on a different edition of the progressive sale, but someone beat me to it. (That’s when I learned if there is something I want, I need to put it on hold.) This time I found it and picked it up on a 40% day, which was still a bargain considering what it typically goes for on eBay.

Unfortunately the story does not end well. I opened the game this evening to do an inventory, and two of the cards were missing. Nope, wait; one of them was just stuck in the manual. But the other card was definitely missing. I even had my wife come look through the box and make sure. Oh well, I do have the receipt and I will return it. And I still picked up some interesting new additions to my game collection.

Oh, and I got to play Scythe again this weekend! But that’s a story that I haven’t even begun to tell, so I’ll provide details on that later.