Friday Night Shots – Birthday Wishes of Unplayed Games

Welcome back to the bar!

I’m so happy you chose to regale us with your presence when it’s such a clear and sunny evening out there.

Have a seat, let me turn the music down a bit (who the heck put Air Supply on the jukebox anyway?) and let’s chat.

What?

Why thank you! Yes, it is my birthday tomorrow, so let’s talk about birthday wishes and unplayed (or seldom-played) games for a bit.

One of the suggestions a couple of weeks ago when I was sick and did a shout-out for Friday Night Shots ideas was talking about the Shelf of Shame.

I haven’t yet decided how I want to do that. Do I talk about individual games that are on my Shelf of Shame?

Do I talk about the concept itself?

Do I chastise myself because I really should call it the “Shelf of Opportunity?”

This week, though, as part of my birthday, let’s talk about games that aren’t really on my Shelf of Shame because I have played them. But they are on my “Why haven’t I played this one in a while? SHAME!” list.

Since I’m in my 5th decade, let’s look at 5 games really briefly.

Let’s start with two of my favourite games that really need to hit the table soon.

1960: The Making of a President (GMT Games)

What? How can my favourite game of all time (at this moment, anyway) be on this list?

I haven’t actually got it to the table since December 19, 2021.

That must change!

The problem with getting this one to the table is that it’s a 2-hour, 2-player game so it doesn’t fit into any of my typical gaming opportunities.

Sunday game day is for a group of people, so it’s kind of frowned on for two people to play their own game, at least a long one (I’ve played a few shorter 2-player games toward the end of the day or while waiting for other games to end). I occasionally bring it out when we have 5 players to give us a 3-player/2-player option instead of trying to find a game that plays 5 well.

As for lunchtime at work?

Well, if you get a 2-hour lunch break, I want to work where you’re working!

Anyway, I endorse playing this soon.

(See what I did there?)

(Editor – “Yes, we did…and we didn’t like it.”)

Time of Crisis (GMT Games)

Another of my favourites on this list?

What’s happening?

This is another game that’s been difficult to get to the table, mainly due to not really having the right opponents (and because the game is kind of long).

It hasn’t been played on the table since November 9, 2019.

This desire has been exacerbated for two reasons, making me think that I will bring it to a Sunday game day again at some point.

First, I’ve begun playing it asynchronously on Rally the Troops, a great web site where you can play rules-enforced games of many great ones (almost none of which are on Boardgame Arena right now, except Pax Pamir, I guess).

Yes, this means that I have played it recently (and even won two games!), but I don’t count asynchronous games in my “played” list and I really want to move those chits around and roll some dice.

Secondly, I just played the new trick-taking game The Barracks Emperors (as will be detailed in my “New to Me – September” post), which is based on Time of Crisis (but in a non-wargame, not really the same except iconography and card names way), and it’s just made me want to play Time of Crisis again.

So let’s make this happen!

Roll Player (Thunderworks Games)

This was a pandemic game, in that I bought it to play with my wife during the lockdowns.

And we enjoyed it!

But I really want to see how well it works at multiple players (which I have done on the new app, but I mean live).

I haven’t played this live on the table since January 31, 2021.

It plays so well at 2 players, and quickly. It would obviously take longer with more players, but it still seems like a fun game.

If my asynchronous plays of it are any indication.

My desire to bring it out to Sunday game day was increased when I heard that my friend Abi (one of my friends doing the wonderful Discard Pile podcast…take a listen!) might like to play it again.

The next time we’re at the same game day, I will bring it and we’ll see what happens.

Santa Monica (Alderac Entertainment Group)

This one is kind of a surprise, but I only got my copy played once (it was another pandemic buy) and I would like to try it again for a couple of reasons.

It hasn’t been played since March 27, 2022.

The first reason is that our only play of it was very constricted. Our normal reservation wasn’t possible and we weren’t informed about that, so we only had one group of tables for 6 players. Dividing two games into that small space was a challenge!

This game needs a bit of space to spread out as you are building your boardwalk and beachfront and it just wasn’t that pleasant to try and fit it into the space we had.

The second reason is because while it was difficult to play it that day, I definitely saw the fun potential of it and it only took about an hour.

A game like this should be tried again!

Besides, in the winter months that will be upcoming, wouldn’t it be good to imagine yourself on the beach?

I think so.

51st State (Portal Games)

Finally, here’s a game that just grabbed me the one time I played, giving me that Imperial Settlers feel without all the annoying preliminary deck-building of the expansions.

This one hasn’t hit the table since April 7, 2019.

I just love the faction-building, post-apocalyptic civilization building in this game, how the cards work together, and all of that good stuff.

I mean, it’s not an amazing game (or else it would have been on my Top 25), but it’s a solid, fun game that I really want to get to the table again.

And since Abi traded it to me a little while ago, maybe I should make that happen.

If I can remember how to play (it’s easier when somebody else brings it because they’re expected to teach it or provide the refresher).

But one day I will!

What do you think of these five games?

Would you play any of them?

Do you?

And do you think I’ll make good on any of these wishes?

That might not be a bad bet, but we’ll see!

(This post brought to you by the Jack Daniels, the number 1 trillion, and the letter ö)