July 2023 Gaming

July was an interesting month for gaming, mainly because I had no idea what kind of gaming I would get in.

I was off the entire month of July, so there wouldn’t be any lunch time work games.

However, there were no Sunday holidays so every Sunday would be a game day.

I also got an extra game night in, something that I think I will be repeating once a month from now on.

So what ended up happening?

Here’s my list of games played.

I managed to get 14 games played (one fewer than June) and 16 plays of those games (4 fewer than June).

It probably wouldn’t even have been that much if I didn’t have some quick games in there.

Here are the games in grid form, so you can see even better!

Many thanks to Boardgame Stats for a great app that produces these images.

Some interesting stuff this month, even if there isn’t quite as much.

Let’s take a look at it.

Unlike last month, I actually managed to get six new games played in July!

Of course, three of those were simple and quick card games, so that helped.

More details on those in my “New to Me” games post, of course, so I won’t mention them here.

The highlight of the month for me, though, was getting two plays of Paladins of the West Kingdom in, after not having played it since February 2020.

I played all of the other West Kingdom games (and of course the first South Tigris game) over that same amount of time, but for some reason never got Paladins to the table.

I was thinking about doing a review but it had been so long.

After two plays of it, look for a review in the coming days/weeks (if I ever get off my ass and do it).

It was falling down on my Top 25 and may have fallen off next year, but I’m not sure now.

Maybe it will still be there!

I still think it’s 3rd in my Top 3 of West Kingdom games, but that’s because I love the other two so much.

In fact, after playing Architects of the West Kingdom once this month as well, we’ll have to see how things shake out.

Another highlight, as has become standard lately, is getting an extra game of Combat Commander in along with the monthly game.

Playing a game with Ted has been a highlight of my Combat Commander gaming.

I haven’t yet written up my July ladder game (this week, I’m hoping) but that was fun too.

Just on the last day (or last day of gaming, anyway, since this was on the 30th), I got my first game of Ark Nova in quite a while.

And I won!

I always enjoy that game. I have a bunch of asynchronous games going on Boardgame Arena but hadn’t seen it on the table in a while.

That was great.

Your thoughts on any of these games?

What did you play in July?

Let me know in the comments.