2020 (Gaming) Year in Review

I didn’t play many board games this year, obviously.

Quarters — Bridge, 1862

Dimes — The Crew, Mottanai, Jump Drive, 1846, Res Arcana

There were no nickels. (Mage Knight got 4 plays, partially due to burnout but mainly because my gaming table is now my work table and its a pain to move everything). All told I played 30 different titles.

Tao of Gaming ’10 Year In Review

For the theoretical new reader, or the not nearly so theoretical old reader looking to kill a few hours at work.

Reviews (ok, most of these are more ramblings, but still):

• Baltimore & Ohio
• Canal Mania
• Campaign Manager (which I soured on as too samey)
• Cyclades (which I trade away 1 month later)
• Dominant Species (16 comments!)
• Escape from the Aliens in Outer Space
• Fifty First State
• GoSu
• Greed (Revisited)
• Haggis
• The Game with the Boring-est Name (Followup)
• Heroes of Graxia
• Innovation (and more innovation)
• Pandemic Defenders of the Realm
• Power Struggle
• Did I really play Rise of Empires? Even after reading my review I have zero recollection of it. For what it’s worth.
• Seven Wonders
• Thunderstone
• Wealth of Nations
• Hodgepodgery

Interesting Posts:

• My contractually obligated Race Card Analysis.
• The JASE geeklist
• Money Talks, BS Walks
• The limit of Expansions
• Thoughts on Disney World. You know you care.
• Bridge Bidding For Gamers (1,2, 3)
• I’m a Wizard (aka “Science, bitches”)

Admin Note — Broken Links

After posting around (and getting results in the support forums) I have a way to fix all my internal links that are broken (well, pointing to my old blog). But honestly  I don’t think I’m going to do it. Even if I wrote a program to fix all the links on my exported file, I then have to delete all the posts (which will probably take an hour or two) and re-import.  So all the links in the old summaries (and elsewhere) pointing to “gaming.powerblogs.com” are broken (or will be, starting Dec 1st). You’ll just have to guess what I was talking about and use the Great and Powerful Oz.

I don’t think it’s worth the time. Most of my readers aren’t new, anyway. All links after the import will work.

Summary — First half of ’09

And now I’m caught up!
Reviews:

• Mr Jack (initial thoughts)
• Jericho
• Masquerade Initial Thoughts & Follow up
• Warriors of God (& the Sorites paradox)
• Small World
• Are you the traitor?

Articles of Note:

• More thoughts on Semi-cooperative games
• The One True Way
• Le Havre Strategy
• Random thoughts about Disneyworld
• The Epic “Every Hand in an amazing bridge session” thread.
• Le Havre variants (and other thoughts)

Summary — Second half of ’08

Reviews:

• Hannibal: Rome vs Carthage
• The Poker-Tek table
• World of Warcraft Minis
• Shadows over Camelot expansion
• Tribune
• Dominion
• Middle Kingdom
• Battlestar Galactica review (thread)

Articles added to my “Professor of Gaming” tenure folder:

• Agricola Strategy
• Variance
• Why do worker placement games, er, work?
• Levels of Expertise (BGG Geeklist)
• Musings on semi-cooperative games

Summary — First half of ’08

Yeah, it’s a bit late…
Reviews:

• Pandemic
• Rails of Europe
• Strat-o-matic
• Lost Valley
• Agricola Review and follow ups. (’09 Update. I think I was right in theory but wrong in practice. The unbalanced nature doesn’t really bother me).
• Pokemon
• Dry Gulch Junction

Race for the Galaxy Articles of Note (since it had just come out):

• The Master Solvers Club thread.
• How much to value +1 explore in race?
• Differences between goods.
• Production vs Windfall worlds
• Coming from Behind.
• Diversified Economy
• Near Sixes
• The initial settle
• Number of Players
• Terraforming Robots

Non-race Article of Note:

• RIP Gary Gygax

Second half ’07 summary

Reviews:

• Control Nut (Initial Thoughts)
• On the Underground
• Race for the Galaxy
• Seven Ages
• Cuthroat Caverns (I.T.)

Random Articles of Note:

• Phoenicia Strategy Thread
• Civilization does not Compress
• Tichu “Straights” thread
• Race for the Galaxy Strategy Thread

Summary for first half of ’07

Just noticed I missed this, so here’s my “Early ’07” summary article.

Reviews/Initial Thoughts:

• Space Dealer
• Yspahan
• Imperial
• Ruse & Bruise
• Garden Gnomes & Candimir
• Glory to Rome thread
• Through the Ages
• Notre Dame
• Phoenicia

Strategy :

• To Court the King
• Glory to Rome Building Analysis

And, of interest, my Combat Commander Thoughts (chain of posts).

2nd Half of the Year Summary

Reviews:

• Combat Commander Initial Thoughts
• Antiquity
• Leonardo da Vinci Thread
• Fussball Taktik
• Die Saulen der Erde
• Scepter of Zavandor (& Strategy Thoughts)
• Vegas Showdown
• Sword of Rome
• Great Space Race

The Amazing Math Puzzle. (It’s awe inspiring, once you grasp the essence).

Indonesia Strategy.

Nobody else cared, but I liked my thoughts on CCG design.

First Half of ’06

Time for a wrap up.

Reviews:

• Parlay
• Twilight Struggle (thread)
• Command and Colors: Ancients
• Railroad Tycoon
• Palazzo
• Jambo
• Funny Friends
• Geschenkt
• Game of Thrones update
• Roma
• Here I Stand
• Antike
• Cash ‘n Guns
• Ark
• Cities & Guilds
• Battlestations!
• Byzantium
• Indonesia

Other interesting articles:

• The Big Um Krone & Kragen discussion
• The CDG thread
• My flirtation with Shadows Over Camelot
• My Gathering notes

As for games played, the big winners are Roma (26), Geschenkt (24), Cash ‘n Guns (21), Shadowfist (16), Ticket to Ride (14 + 5 for Marklin), Fairy Tale (12), Caylus (7, not counting 100+ online), Twilight Struggle (7).

Seven Ages got two plays, but that’s 12 hours of gaming.