Tuesday, April 26, 2016

Obligatory “What I Played In…” Post Part IX: March 2016

And here we have it; our game plays from the month of March 2016.  Thankfully I got this one off in time.  You may be saying, “Aaron, last month’s ‘What I Played’ post was really late”, and you’d be right!  I wanted to make sure to finish the “End of 2015” series and that ended up taking up all of my time.  Now we’re back to a certain level of normal and these posts should come more or less on time.  March ended up being an incredibly prolific month of games!  We were able to beat our old record of 76 plays in a month with 80 in March!  Enough preamble, let’s move on to the good stuff!

Statistics:
Total plays in March 2016 – 80
Total unique games played in March 2016 – 23
New games played in March 2016 – 3
New games acquired in March 2016 – 3
Most plays of a single game – 11

Red7
 

Designer – Carl Chudyk/Chris Cieslik
Publisher – Asmadi Games
Last play before March 2016 – 2/27/16
Total plays in March 2016 – 11

Well here’s a surprise, mine and Em’s most played game in March was Red7.  Anyone who reads this blog could have guessed that!  We still really enjoy this game as it is fun and so very quick to pull out.  We usually bring this out pretty much everywhere and play a few hands when we have some time.

Coup


Designer – Rikki Tahta
Publisher – Indie Boards & Cards
Last play before March 2016 – 12/13/15
Total plays in March 2016 – 10

Yay!  We got in some great plays of Coup in March!  It had been a few months since we’ve played and that is way too long in between games.  We always have a great time pulling this game out and having a rioting good time!

Oh My Goods!


Designer – Alexander Pfister
Publisher – Lookout Games
Last play before March 2016 – 2/27/16
Total plays in March 2016 - 10

This game is quickly becoming one of mine and Em’s favorite games.  It is very quick to pull out and play and have some cool decisions for being such a small game.  This is a game we bring everywhere as we enjoy it so much.  Oh, and bonus for Em, she kicks my butt most of the time!

Mottainai


Designer – Carl Chudyk
Publisher – Asmadi Games
Last play before March 2016 – 2/28/16
Total plays in March 2016 - 9

This game is becoming a favorite of mine.  I love the mechanic of multi-use cards in a game.  This is a pretty classic Chudyk game as he really loves using cards in interesting way and enjoys putting in some pretty cool combos.  This will be a game that we play for a long time to come!

Rolling America


Designer – Hisashi Hayashi
Publisher – Gamewright
New to me
First play – 3/2/16
Total plays in March 2016 - 6

We were walking through Target early in March and saw this little dice rolling game on the shelf for very cheap.  We decided to pull the trigger and pick it up.  We’ve really enjoyed this game.  It is a fun little puzzle that involved dice and placement of numbers on a grid style map.  This is a fun, quick and easy to teach game that anyone can enjoy.

Codenames


Designer – Vlaada Chvátil
Publisher – Czech Games Edition
Last play before March 2016 – 12/6/15
Total plays in March 2016 – 5

We pulled this fun little party-style game out in the first time in a few months.  This is a great game to break out with slightly larger groups of people or just when you want a quick and entertaining game that doesn’t take a lot of teaching.  This is always an entertaining game!

Castellion


Designer – Shadi Torbey
Publisher – Z-Man Games
Last play before March 2016 – 2/28/16
Total plays in March 2016 - 4

I got in a bunch more plays of this tile-laying, solo/two-player game.  This is another great addition into the Oniverse universe that includes Onirim, Urbion, and Sylvion.  I would definitely recommend this one to someone who likes a good solitaire puzzle.

Patchwork


Designer – Uwe Rosenberg
Publisher – Lookout Games/Mayfair Games
Last play before March 2016 – 2/18/16
Total plays in March 2016 – 4

Yup, I don’t know how much I can say about this one.  This has become a favorite and a go to game for me and Em.  We love this gem of an abstract game!  And, as a bonus, Em found some really cool blue buttons for cheap at a fabric store and we added them to the game to pimp it out a little!

Kraftwagen


Designer – Matthias Cramer
Publisher – ADC Blackfire Entertainment
New to me
First play – 3/16/16
Total plays in March 2016 – 3

I had been interested in this game for a while even since seeing Rahdo’s runthrough of it a few months back.  I love the theme of early 20th century German automotives and thought that the mechanisms of the game looked really good.  We found it for cheap on at Funagain and jumped at it.  I am happy to say that we really enjoyed it!  The game is the very definition of “elegant” with it central rondell mechanism.  I’d highly recommend this one to almost anyone!

7 Wonders: Duel


Designer – Antoine Bauza/Bruno Cathala
Publisher – Repos Production/Asmodee
Last play before March 2016 – 2/10/16
Total plays in March 2016 – 2

We were able to get another couple of plays of this two-player gem in the month of March and as usual they were awesome!  This is becoming one of our go to games for our Wednesday morning coffee dates and we love it!  I think this could possibly make a showing on Em’s top 10 list eventually!

Bottom of the 9th


Designer – Darrell Louder/Mike Mullins
Publisher – Dice Hate Me/Greater Than Games
Last play before March 2016 – 2/18/16
Total plays in March 2016 – 2

We are always looking for a couple of games in a given month of this wonderful little baseball game.  I love how this really feels like you are in the bottom of the 9th inning trying to get that last hit to win the game or trying to pitch your way out of a jam to hold the lead.  I love this game and am looking forward to the Kickstarter they are supposed to having early in April.

Hanabi


Designer – Antoine Bauza
Publisher – R&R Games
Last play before March 2016 – 1/27/16
Total plays in March 2016 - 2

This game is just cool!  I love how you take your hand and hold it open face.  This is such a fantastic way to get people interested in the game.   I highly recommend this game for everyone as it is fun to teach, and incredible to play!

Mysterium


Designer – Oleksandre Nievkiy/Oleg Sidorendko             
Publisher – Libellud/Asmodee
Last play before March 2016 – 1/10/16
Total plays in March 2016 – 2

Okay, I really love this game!  I have been the ghost every time so far but I don’t mind because this game really shows that games are meant to be played and enjoyed.  I love to hear the deduction and social parts of this awesome game!

Ashes: Rise of the Phoenixborn


Designer – Isaac Vega
Publisher – Plaid Hat Games
Last play before March 2016 – 2/3/16
Total plays in March 2016 – 1

We got in a play of this incredible LCG-style game.  I love this game so much and (spoiler!) I think it will end up on my top 10 list.  It has so many pretty dice and I find it to be such an awesome battle card game.  I still can’t wait for the Brennan/Rin decks when they come out this month!

The Big Book of Madness


Designer – Maxime Rambourg
Publisher – IELLO
Last play before March 2016 – 1/23/16
Total plays in March 2016 – 1

I love this game!  It is a wonderful co-operative give that is a great puzzle for multiple players to work their way through.  We were able to teach this to Sean for the first time and it was fun to play through it with three of us instead of just me and Em.  Can’t wait to get another play of it in!

Empires at Sea


Designer – Zach Silverzweig/Amy Silverzweig
Publisher – (Self-Published)
New to me
First play – 3/23/16
Total plays in March 2016 – 1

This game was a new one for me.  I was contacted by designer Zach Silverzweig to see if I wanted to do a review of the game and I thought it would be fun!  I’m not going to go into too much (because the full review will be up, hopefully, very soon!) but I will say that Em and I had fun with it.  It is an exploration, empire building game that has some fun card play.  Check back here soon for the full review!

Forbidden Island


Designer – Matt Leacock
Publisher – Gamewright
Last play before March 2016 – 1/20/16
Total plays in March 2016 – 1

Em and I got a play of this in during March and we were able to teach her dad how to play as well.  He seemed to quite enjoy the experience and we won, although just barely!  I really want to try out Forbidden Desert as I think Em and I would prefer the weight of it over this one.  Not that we don’t enjoy Forbidden Island, it is a blast!  I will definitely hold on to this one because when my daughter, Fiona, gets old enough I want to teach it to her.

Rattle, Battle, Grab the Loot


Designer – Ignacy Trzewiczek
Publisher – Portal Games
Last play before March 2016 – 11/29/16
Total plays in March 2016 – 1

We went three months without playing a round of this fun game!  That is far too long!  Thankfully Em really felt like pulling it out so we played a really good round of it.  Em ended up making one bad decision and it ended up costing her the game as she lost by one point!  I don’t really understand people’s dislike of this game as we think it is just plain, simple fun…and isn’t that what gaming is supposed to be?

Snow Tails


Designer – Gordon Lamont/Fraser Lamont
Publisher – Renegade Game Studios/Fragor Games
Last play before March 2016 – 1/17/16
Total plays in March 2016 – 1

This is mine and Em’s only “real” race game and I think we may have the best with this one!  I love the card play and decisions in this game and it is just fun.  I also enjoy how quick it is to teach.  We taught this one to Terry (Em’s dad) and he picked it up pretty quickly and seemed to mostly enjoy how it worked once he started to really get the mechanics.  Try this one if you like racing games, it’s a great one!

Star Wars: Imperial Assault


Designer – Corey Konieczka/Justin Kemppainen/Jonathan Ying
Publisher – Fantasy Flight Games
Last play before March 2016 – 2/3/16
Total plays in March 2016 – 1

And here we are, at the end of our 14 game long campaign of Star Wars: Imperial Assault.  I won with the Imperials and thus the galaxy is a more organized and “peaceful” place because of it!  I think this will be the last time we play this one as Em and I are finding that she isn’t really a fan of these types of games where she puts so much time in and then ends up losing and it feels like she’s lost the entire thing in just one game.  I enjoyed this for the most part but it may be up on the trading block now that we’ve finished the campaign…but at least the hero Imperials took home the win!

Tides of Time


Designer – Kristian Čurla
Publisher – Portal Games
Last play before March 2016 – 2/6/16
Total plays in March 2016 – 1

Em and I played a hand of this fun, quick little drafting card game.  I always enjoy the thinking process during this game as you really have a ton of information as there aren’t many cards and you get to pretty much see them all during the game.  I’d recommend this to anyone who likes two-player games and drafting games.

Trambahn


Designer – Helmut Ohley
Publisher – Lookout Games/Mayfair Games
Last play before March 2016 – 2/10/16
Total plays in March 2016 – 1

Not much more to say about this great card game.  Em and I always love our plays of this one and I really enjoy the theme they pasted onto it!  This is another game I’d really show to those who love two-player games.

Viceroy


Designer – Yuri Zhuravlev
Publisher – Mayday Games/Hobby World
Last play before March 2016 – 1/13/16
Total plays in March 2016 – 1

Em and I played a good hand of this fun tableau building game at our weekly coffee date.  Neither of us really seemed to have a good strategy going but we ended up having some pretty decent score at the end.  I love the art on these cards and I’m looking forward to Zhuravlev’s new design that will hopefully come out this year, The Golden Sails.

New acquisitions in March 2016:
Empires at Sea
Kraftwagen
Rolling America

Well my friends and readers, there you have it.  These were the wonderful games that we pulled out and had a great time playing in March.  Come on back soon as I’ll have up a review of Empires at Sea.  Shortly after that Em and I will be putting up our annual top 10 game lists, then we’re going to be moving into convention season and those are always fun posts!  Thanks so much for reading and as always, comment with any questions!  Until next time, game on!

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