September 2023 Gaming

As 2023 steamrolls ahead, another month of gaming is complete!

September actually was a slight step back from August, even though I didn’t miss any game days!

However, there were fewer days at work where we had lunch free to play. In addition to that, a couple of our Sundays were dedicated to one (maybe two) games, which made the quantity go down just a little bit.

Here’s my list of games played last month!

I was able to play 12 games last month (22 in August) and managed 21 plays of them in total (25 in August).

Here’s the list in grid format (Thanks, BG Stats, for these awesome pics!)

What September lacked in total games played, it made up for in getting some older games to the table again after a long respite.

Let’s take a look at what was on the table.

I’ll talk about my three “new to me” games in another post, but they were a lot of fun.

Somehow, I managed to actually convince some friends to play Time of Crisis, the first time that’s been on the table since 2019.

And the first of my birthday wishes to actually get there!

I have played a few asynchronous games on Rally the Troops (and am currently involved in one with Grant from the Players’ Aid! So I’d better watch myself), but it was so good to actually play this on the table, trying it out with the Cube4Me storage solution (it did really make it a lot easier to set up and play).

It was my second play with the Age of Iron & Rust expansion, so I may do a review of that soon.

It’s also the first time in all of my plays (either on the table or async online) that the game has ended via the Diocletian event rather than somebody reaching 60 points!

I had reached 60 points but I wasn’t Emperor at that point so the game end hadn’t been triggered yet.

There were so many events that the barbarians weren’t storming as much as they usually do (though they did pick up some steam later).

Poor Tartan was beset with two (!) barbarian leaders in one province and a Rival Emperor!

This play reminded me of why I like this game so much, though multiple plays of it on Rally the Troops plus this game did make me think about where it will rank in my Top 25.

We’ll see!

There were also a few other games that I haven’t played in ages, getting me further into the “unique games for 2023 but not new to me games” realm.

Point Salad got played with a couple of co-workers as well as a new co-worker (new to our games, not actually a new co-worker). I like that game as a great lunch-time filler, especially for those players who aren’t necessarily big gamers in general (though she can handle 7 Wonders – Duel, so maybe I shouldn’t make that assumption!)

Getting this play in (multiple plays on the same day, actually) along with my original plays, prompted me to finally review the game!

What really excited me, however, was my first play of Ra in 8 years!

And this was the new, beautiful edition (though it is kind of over-produced for my taste).

I did enjoy the new player boards.

It’s nice to have all of the scoring explained right on the board, as well as having a specific place to put each tile.

Those tiles on the right will go away every round while the tiles on the left are the ones you keep.

It works really well!

This is a classic Reiner Knizia auction game and it’s probably one of my favourite auction games (I’m not huge on them, though I do like some of them).

Eight years is way too long to be away from it.

I like this edition as well, though it’s a bit much and some of the upgraded items are just way too fancy for what they provide to the game.

But it was nice to play it again!

Finally, I’ve mentioned it a couple of times already (like in the review of the game), but it was nice to get multiple plays of Paladins of the West Kingdom in after so long away from it.

That’s the main reason that I was able to review it, and it’s also kind of the main reason that I didn’t get many games played in September. One Sunday, the game took so long that it was the only game we played!

It did reinvigorate my love for the game, and it may adjust my Top 25 next year.

We even got two plays in with the expansion!

So that review will hopefully be coming soon (if I don’t let things go like I sadly have been the last couple of weeks).

I love a mix of old and new, as well as some games that I just enjoy even if they get played more often.

And September was definitely that!

What did you play in September?

Anything good? Bad? Eh?

Let me know in the comments.