Hey ya’all! I’m
back with my “What I Played In…” series and this post will tackle the games
that I (and others of course!) played in November of 2015. This was an interesting month as we have a
few new game plays and also got some of our new favorites to the table a
bunch. Spoiler alert, the new games that
we got/played we really liked! For those
who don’t know, I am very careful about our game purchases. I will research every game a ton before I
pull the trigger on it so it is very rare that we actually buy a game we don’t
like. If you’re curious about what we
played in previous months just check out the links below.
With all that out of the way, let’s take a look at the
stats from our plays in November and the specific games. Enjoy!
Statistics:
Total plays in November 2015 – 50
Total unique games played in November 2015 – 18
New games played in November 2015 – 4
New games acquired in November 2015 – 4
Most plays of a single game – 10
Patchwork
Designer – Uwe Rosenberg
Publisher – Mayfair Games/Lookout Games
Last play before November 2015 – 10/28/15
Total plays in November 2015 - 10
Wow, this game is getting a ton of play in our
house! We’ve had it for two months now
and have already logged 19 plays of it!
This easily has the potential of hitting my top 10 when I redo it in
January. This game has very few rules
but just has a ton of great decisions that can be made during the play. Also, as a bonus, I actually filled in my
entire quilt once! It was epic!
7 Wonders: Duel
Designer – Antoine Bauza/Bruno Cathala
Publisher – Repos Production/Asmodee
New to me
First play – 11/14/15
Total plays in November 2015 – 6
This was a new pick up in November and was one of my top
interests from Essen Spiel. This was
pretty much an insta-buy as we already love 7 Wonders. This game takes that ideas of that game and
turns it into a super tight and super fun, two-player experience. I love how this game takes hand drafting and
turns it into pool drafting and then makes sciences and military
insta-wins. My wife still isn’t sure
about the instant win conditions but she is still enjoying the game
nonetheless. Just so you know, I love
the military and science options, it really makes the decisions that much more
difficult throughout the game.
Codenames
Designer – Vlaada Chvátil
Publisher – Czech Games Edition
Last play before November 2015 – 9/27/15
Total plays in November 2015 – 6
Ah Codenames, how popular you are amongst gamers! Seriously though, this game is an absolutely
great deduction-style game that is one of the best games to break out with
people who don’t really game. This is a
password-style game where there is a spymaster who gives clues to his/her
team. The goal is to “find” all of your
spies first by giving out a one-word clue and a number. This is a wonderful game and deserves all of
the hype that it has lavished upon it!
Bottom of the 9th
Designer – Darrell Louder/Mike Mullins
Publisher – Dice Hate Me/Greater Than Games
New to me
First play – 11/18/15
Total plays in November 2015 – 5
This was another of our successful Kickstarter
acquisitions. I saw this game funding
back in the spring and I had to jump on it.
It was by the fantastic Dice Hate Me publisher and it was quite a cheap
game to help fund. After doing research
and seeing Rodney Smith’s Watch It Played runthrough my mind was made up. We got it in November (only a month after the
proposed date) and broke it open right away.
This is an absolutely great two-player game. It is simple to set up, easy to play, and
provides a great amount of fun and tension!
It actually feels as though you are in the bottom of the 9th
inning and just need to get that last run.
I highly recommend this game, especially to anyone who loves baseball.
Rhino Hero
Designer – Scott Frisco/Steven Strumpf
Publisher – HABA
Last play before November 2015 – 10/22/15
Total plays in November 2015 – 4
This game has become one that we really like to pull out
for a quick filler game. It is light,
fun, and provides quite a bit of laughs.
This is a great one for adults and kids alike and if you have a family I
would highly suggest getting this one.
Hey, even if you don’t have kids, get this game anyway as you’ll find
everyone enjoying the quick and entertaining gameplay.
Trambahn
Designer – Helmut Ohley
Publisher – Lookout Games/Mayfair Games
Last play before November 2015 – 10/28/15
Total plays in November 2015 – 4
Trambahn continues to be one of Em and my favorite
two-player games. It is a great little
card game that apparently plays somewhat similarly to Lost Cities. We’ve never played Lost Cities but this one
has really captured our attention. It
has some great choices and the scoring is interesting and provides a ton of
fun. I’d highly recommend this one to
anyone who loves a good, quick, two-player card game with some great art and
theme.
Above and Below
Designer – Ryan Laukat
Publisher – Red Raven Games
New to me
First play – 11/20/15
Total plays in November 2015 – 2
Em and I picked this game up with some money from a bunch
of stuff that we sold around the house.
I’d been hearing about this game for some time as it was successfully
funded on Kickstarter and did quite well during it funding run. We decided to pick it up as it seemed like
some fun mechanics with a little storytelling thrown in. Along with that, it has some of the best art
I’ve seen in a game. I find Ryan
Laukat’s art to be some of the best I’ve ever seen in a game. He has a very fantastical style that really
reminds me of Hayao Miyazaki’s work with Studio Ghibli. This all adds up to make a wonderful package
of a game. We’ve played it twice now and
have had a ton of fun with it!
Tides of Time
Designer – Kristian Čurla
Publisher – Portal Games
Last play before November 2015 – 10/29/15
Total plays in November 2015 – 2
Another month and another couple plays of this game. My wife and I really enjoy this one for a
quick, two-player, card-drafting experience.
I still don’t understand how people think that this game gets stale as
it is always different. Because of the
perfect information in this game it really turns it into a completely different
experience from most of the other games we have. It really is all about out-thinking your
opponent and that makes this game tons of fun for a such a quick (and cheap!)
experience.
Wizards of the Wild
Designer – Adam West/Dan Schnake/Abe Schnake
Publisher – CrossCut Games
New to me
First play – 11/26/15
Total plays in November 2015 – 2
This was the second Kickstarter game that came in the
mail in November and it was another hit.
This game is a fun, easy-to-learn dice and card game where you take on
the persona of an anthropomorphic animal familiar who is using magic to be
crowned the king of the forest. Adam and
crew did a great job on this Kickstarter and they were actually able to get it
to backer before the expected December date.
I was proud to help them fund this game as Em and I have been having a
ton of fun with it. It is a beautifully
looking game with simple but fun mechanics.
I would definitely recommend this as a good family game!
Ashes: Rise of the Phoenixborn
Designer – Isaac Vega
Publisher – Plaid Hat Games
Last play before November 2015 – 10/26/15
Total plays in November 2015 – 1
We only got in one play of Ashes in this month but it was
super fun as usual! This is a game that
has a definite possibility of cracking my top 10 list. I love the interaction between the different
decks and we haven’t even started deck-building yet! I’m looking forward to April as that is the
expected date of the first expansion for the game. More characters mean even more replayability
and more fun!
Dice Brewing
Designer – Filip Glowacz/Ireneusz Huszcza
Publisher – Board&Dice/StuntKite Publishing
Last play before November 2015 – 9/20/15
Total plays in November 2015 – 1
We took this game to one of our favorite spots and found
out that it is very easy to play this anywhere!
It is a surprisingly portable game and as usual we had a bunch of fun
rolling a ton of dice and brewing up some beer.
I think I had about 12 dice in my warehouse at one point and was able to
get a couple of really big turns to barely edge out my wife.
Ghost Stories
Designer – Antoine Bauza
Publisher – Repos Production/Asmodee
Last play before November 2015 – 10/31/15
Total plays in November 2015 – 1
We have had quite a few plays of this lately and having a
ton of fun with it. We are finding it to
be a great co-operative game especially to pull out with newer players as it is
very easy to teach and fun to play. Big
surprise right? A great Bauza game!
Imperial Settlers
Designer – Ignacy Trzewiczek
Publisher – Portal Games
Last play before November 2015 – 9/3/15
Total plays in November 2015 – 1
Here is another surprise…okay, not really. If you followed my blog at all you know by
now that I’m a huge fan of this game. It
is (as of now) my #2 game of all time! I
love games that have fun card play and beautiful artwork and this game has that
is spades. Any game that has a tableau
building mechanic is also of interest to me and this game is one of my
favorites for fun combos. We played this
particular round with both the Atlanteans expansion and the Why Can’t We Be
Friends expansion. Always a fun game!
Province
Designer – Samuel Strick
Publisher – Laboratory Games
Last play before November 2015 – 9/23/15
Total plays in November 2015 – 1
Em and I have been getting this game to the table more
often lately. We now have a coffee date
every Wednesday and so we bring a bunch of smaller games with us and this is
super portable. This is a small game
(and was actually our first Kickstarter game) that we paid a total of $5 for
and have gotten more than that out of it.
This is a super small Euro-style game with an interesting worker
placement element. I am enjoying it more
because it is super simple to break out and clean up and takes no more than
15-20 minutes to play.
Rattle, Battle, Grab the Loot
Designer – Ignacy Trzewiczek
Publisher – Portal Games
Last play before November 2015 – 10/4/15
Total plays in November 2015 – 1
We were able to break out this game and as usual it was a
very close and very swingy event. We
completely love this game and just how it works. I always state that I can understand why some
people don’t like it but my question is why did they go after it in the first
place? Ignacy was quite honest in how
this game is very luck based but I suppose some people just didn’t listen. Besides, Em and I have found that while it is
heavily luck based, we are able to mitigate that is some ways. All of our games have been quite close and
that marks a good game in my opinion. If
you know what you’re in for this game is a wonderful experience!
Star Wars: Imperial Assault
Designer – Corey Konieczka/Justin Kemppainen/Jonathan
Ying
Publisher – Fantasy Flight Games
Last play before November 2015 – 10/22/15
Total plays in November 2015 – 1
We played our very last side mission of the current
campaign and I (as the Imperials) was finally able to beat Sean and Em (as the
Rebellion) in a side mission! We’ve
found that I’ve been able to win most of the story missions while they will all
of the side missions. This may be a bad
sign as we only have two story missions left, the next one and the finale! Hopefully the Imperial heroes will be able to
take out the Rebellion scum!
Viceroy
Designer – Yuri Zhuravlev
Publisher – Mayday Games/Hobby World
Last play before November 2015 – 9/20/15
Total plays in November 2015 – 1
Em and I got in one play of this wonderful pyramid
building, hand management, set collection gem out of Russia. This is a great card game and I’m not sure it
will ever get old. The only real
drawback is how much of a table-hog it is, but we can get over that with the
great gameplay and beautiful art!
Welcome to the Dungeon
Designer – Masato Uesugi
Publisher – IELLO
Last play before November 2015 – 10/18/15
Total plays in November 2015 – 1
We got in one play of this simple but fun press-your-luck
game. This one is simple to play and
easy to teach and has some of the great artwork that I’ve come to love from
IELLO. This would be a great game to
just have for a quick filler and simple family weight game.
And that was our November. All in all I’d say that it was a great month
of gaming. The few new games that we’ve
picked up or received from Kickstarter purchases have been great and I can’t
wait to get some of the games that I know are coming this next month. I know we have a ton of games coming that are
pre-ordered and also coming for Christmas presents. It is going to be a crazy month of game
acquisitions but I’m not sure how much actually play will get done as it will
be a busy month. I’ll leave you off with
our November acquisitions. Let me know
what I’ve missed and should pick up!
New acquisitions in November 2015:
7 Wonders: Duel
Above and Below
Bottom of the 9th
Wizards of the Wild
And there you have it.
As always, thanks so much for reading and feel free to leave any
questions or comments in bottom and feel free to message and/or friend me on
BoardGameGeek. You can find me under the
name LateToTheTable. Until next time,
game on!
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