Dude! Take Your Turn!
A Gaming Life
Top 25 Games Played of All Time – 2022 Edition (25-21)
With the close of the year 2021, I have actually played 422 games since I really started playing boardgames in 2012.
Since my “Top 25 Games Played of All Time” series in 2019 was predicated on my having played almost 300 games, I thought that 2022 would be a good time to update that list.
I’ve played over 100 new to me games since January 2019!
Thus, here is the first entry in the 2022 version of the Top 25 Games Played of All Time (played by me, of course, not just anybody).
How did I compile this list?
Using the wonderful Ranking Engine from Pubmeeple that takes all of our games on Boardgame Geek and let’s you compare them Tinder style (except instead of swiping left/right when a game comes up, it instead asks you to choose one game over the other when a pair of them come up).
You can compare games you’ve ranked, games in your collection, games you’ve played, whatever!
It’s invaluable (and incredibly long when you have a bunch of games, as I had to make around 2200 choices overall).
Some of the results even surprised me.
Just a note before you get outraged, though.
Even having played 422 games, there are a ton of games I haven’t played. Just look at the Top 400 Games on BGG series where there were so many I hadn’t even touched before!
Hell, I’ve barely played half of the Top 100.
So obviously those won’t appear on this list at all.
You Gloomhaven fans are just going to have to calm yourselves.
No you’re not. Go away.
The other thing to be aware of is that some of these games, I’ve only played once. So their rating could change a lot by the next time I do this.
These are just the games that appeal to me.
It’s a calm, gentle list.
Just in case you’re curious, my #422 game is Lucky Loop.
Wow, what a terrible game. I’m not very calm about that one.
With that being said, I hope you enjoy this and let me know where you would rank some of these games in your own personal rankings.
Read MoreNew to Me – December 2021
It’s the end of the year 2021 (or it was when I played these games, anyway).
Having been able to go to game days again since August 2021, it was nice to have a bunch of new to me games to play each month!
I know this blog has been much better for that.
Still, December was a bit of a slow month, mainly because we didn’t have December 26 (Boxing Day up here in the Great White North and nobody was coming to that one).
Still, three games is not bad!
And since one of the three games was from 2001, even the Cult of the New to Me can’t really complain.
Not that they didn’t try.
I’m pretty sure they were talking about my second in command, though.
At least that’s what I like to believe.
Anyway, I hope you had a great holiday and welcome to a brand new year of 2022!
May it be much better than last year.
So, without further ado (all of my ado was used in some scheme to get some random people into some random castle anyway), let’s begin!
(You can click on each picture to expand it to a bigger size)
Read MoreStorm Above the Reich – After Action Report – Mission #11
Four missions into the second season of the Staffel Roy campaign in Storm Above the Reich and things aren’t looking that rosy.
Victory points are few and far between. I need 30 VP to “not lose” and I’m not that close with only 7.
However, I am earning “Staffel” experience points which means that I can spend them to make sure the missions are “inbound.”
The importance of this is that bombers are worth 2 VP when destroyed during Inbound missions instead of 1 VP for the other two options (Near Target and Outbound).
So with that in mind, and 6 missions left in the season, will Staffel Roy be able to persevere?
I don’t know. I played this missions weeks ago! (Ok, maybe just a couple).
How about we check out this report so we can all find out what happened (since I don’t freaking remember)?
Read MoreMarvel Legendary Update – 2022
(Edit – 1/26/23 – this post won’t be updated anymore. Check out the 2023 post now live! )
(Edit – 9/6/22) – The second blog post for the Black Widow set is up!
This gives more on the returning “Undercover” keyword and also shows how cards that go Undercover can be “Unleashed” from your victory point pile to your hand.
It looks like a great concept!
The set is also returning “Dark Memories” to the Legendary system. That’s from the Revelations pack.
No word on if it’s going to work any differently (I haven’t played with that set yet), but it can be a nice Fight boost (except when it’s on a Villain!)
(Edit – 8/25/22) – The first blog post for the Black Widow set is up!
So far, two re-used keywords, which isn’t a bad thing. Keyword bloat is a thing!
Undercover comes back from the SHIELD expansion and Dodge from the Villains set.
It also reveals two cards, including Evasive Acrobats, which is a Black Widow card that not only you can Dodge, but allows you to Dodge another card. Perfect for those hands where you’ve had to discard so much that you have nothing useful to do.
It also reveals a Yelena Belova card that uses Undercover (I’m not going to show all the card reveals here. I don’t want to steal Upper Deck’s thunder) and a Scheme that’s pretty brutal! First, it has 11 twists minus 1 per player (so 2 player has 9 twists!). Secondly, every time a twist comes out, players must Dodge with a hero in their hand, reveal the hero they drew, and KO it if it’s a non-grey hero.
Dastardly!!!
Keep an eye on this post for more updates.
(Edit – 8/4/22) – Black Panther is out!
But more importantly, Bageltop Games (a truly (ahem) legendary member of the Legendary community) posted a picture for the upcoming Black Widow expansion on Boardgame Geek.
Since this isn’t from a blog with multiple pictures that I can post a sample pic from, I’m not going to steal his work and post the pic here. Instead, you can see it on his BGG page.
Some interesting stuff here, though. Taskmaster Mastermind, a SHIELD-affiliated Black Widow, Yelena Bolova, Red Guardian, White Tiger and a divided card with Falcon & the Winter Soldier. Wonder if that entire Hero will be divided cards like that.
Also two new key words, Undercover and Dark Memories (or maybe Dark Memories was from the expansion that had Scarlet Witch? I don’t remember). (2nd edit – Doh! I think Undercover is not new either, but there is a keyword “Unleash” that’s new)
(Edit – 7/27/22) – A new Black Panther blog is up!
They’ve now added cards that will let you give Wounds to villains, and some villains who have to be whittled down with Wounds rather than actually fought.
This definitely does look like an interesting new mechanic. Especially the Killmonger Mastermind who can only be defeated this way, so it will take 5 turns to defeat each of his Tactics.
With the city filling up as well, even with a low Fight threshold, it may be tough!
This is the last post before it releases on August 3.
(Edit – 7/13/22) – And now another Black Panther blog post is up!
Looks like it brings back the “Empowered” keyword from the Ant-Man expansion (which I haven’t played with yet).
“Empowered” cards get more powerful for each Hero in the HQ that has that ability, meaning they get +1 Fight.
It also brings back multi-classed cards, with each hero in the expansion having one.
This expansion is looking cooler and cooler all the time.
And apparently the release date for this is August 3. Not long now! Upper Deck is really trying to catch up after the 2021 debacle
(Edit – 7/12/22) – I missed this on Twitter and on BGG (on BGG because I thought it was a question about recreating the comic)
A new expansion has been announced on Twitter, but it’s just the name!
Marvel Legendary: Infinity Saga will apparently be another MCU set (rather than out of the comics).
Should be interesting!
(Edit – 6/30/22) – The first blog post for the Black Panther expansion is out!
My favourite bit of this is the Heroic Ambush, where if a Hero enters the HQ and you’ve already played the type of card the Ambush requires, you get a positive effect. However, you don’t have to have played that colour yet. You could just “have” it (so it could be in your hand).
Neat!
The expansion also brings back the “Throne’s Favor” from the Realm of Kings expansion.
(Edit – 6/8/22) – As per the latest Upper Deck livestream, the Guardians of the Galaxy set is coming June 15!
And a new blog post too.
A couple of new Schemes are shown, and the Ronan Mastermind is confirmed.
A Triggered Artifact for a Mastermind Tactic? Woo!
(Edit – 6/6/22) – Another blog post already!
This one shows the returning keyword “Villainous Weapon” that can make villains even more powerful (unless they pop up as the first villain of the game! In which they are KO’d.
There’s also a new keyword for villains: Command.
This does confirm a couple (or both, I think?) villain groups: Ravagers and Followers of Ronan
Maybe a release date will be coming soon?
(Edit – 6/2/22) – Another blog post! Release must be imminent.
This set brings back the “Excessive Violence” keyword, where you can spend one extra Fight to activate all Excessive Violence abilities on cards already played.
But it also adds “Excessive Kindness!”
You spend one extra recruit when recruiting a card to activate this one.
Looks interesting!
(Edit – 5/27/22) – Apparently the next release will be the MCU (meaning screenshots from the movie) edition of Guardians of the Galaxy. There’s a new blog post, with a couple of pics (one is below)
It’s not necessarily the next expansion release, but they usually only do blog posts for the ones that are coming soon.
One cool thing about this set is that it uses the same team affiliation as the original Guardians of the Galaxy, which means that they’ll combine really well!
One weird thing is that, at least so far, the card characters are the same (Rocket/Groot, Gamora, Star-Lord) as the original, so how will you tell them apart?
It is also bringing back Divided Cards, which was a cool mechanism as well.
(Edit – 3/22/22) – Apparently the solicit for the Black Widow expansion is up. No real details but it does mention 4 of the 5 heroes (assuming it’s not wrong): Black Widow, Red Guardian, Winter Soldier, and the White Tiger
(Edit – 3/2/22) – I missed Blog #1, but here’s Blog #2 for the Dr. Strange and the Shadows of Nightmare expansion, coming on the 9th!
How about a preview?
(Edit – 2/9/22) – Apparently Dr. Strange and the Shadows of Nightmare is due to be released on March 9!
(Edit – 1/17/22) – One more blog post before the release!
(Edit – 1/12/22) – Looks like this is supposed to release on January 19! Woo!!!
(Edit – 1/10/22) – The second Messiah Complex blog post is up from Upper Deck. Introduces the “Clone” keyword, and it looks like a really cool addition to the game. It will let you get multiple copies of the same card if available. Neat!
(Edit – 1/5/22) – The first Messiah Complex blog post from Upper Deck is posted! You can find it here with a couple of card reveals and it talks about two returning keywords: Investigate and Chivalrous Duel. Check it out!
Since people really seem to be interested in the Marvel Legendary expansions (judging from the number of people going to the 2021 post about upcoming expansions, even to today!), let’s do a 2022 update! This is everything I’ve seen from Boardgame Geek and other announcements regarding upcoming expansions.
First, I have to say that supposedly the remaining 2021 expansions are supposed to be coming out soon from Upper Deck (sadly, only the Annihilation expansion actually came out in 2021 from all the ones that were planned).
That would be the Dr. Strange expansion, the Messiah Complex expansion and the MCU (Marvel Movie) Guardians of the Galaxy expansion.
All of the expansions have released box art, which is cool!
But no sign of when they will be coming.
Anyway, Upper Deck has also announced at least one 2022 expansion that will be coming out, the Black Panther expansion, and they have just released the box art for it.
Yes, this does look pretty rad, doesn’t it?
Seems like we’re getting Storm as well as Black Panther.
I’m sure we’ll be getting Shuri, but who else on top of that?
Inquiring minds want to know!
Read MoreReview – This Didn’t Happen
One of the joys of being a games blogger is when you get to see a game in it’s nascent form, when while it may be ready to be presented to the world, it really hasn’t been yet.
So when designer John Heffernan reached out to me to ask if I’d take a look at his new game coming to Kickstarter in January called This Didn’t Happen, how could I resist?
The game is designed by John with artwork by Zé Miguel and will be published by Isle of Bees.
The game is a 30-minute cooperative card game for 1-4 players.
Keep in mind that while I received a production quality edition of the game, the rules are still being finalized and updated and things can change during and after the Kickstarter (which will be going live on January 5 and I will link to it then) even with the components.
You can go to the Isle of Bees page and check out the Kickstarter preview from there.
Anyway, with that in mind, let’s take a look!
Read MoreBlog in Review – 2021
As much as 2020 sucked for long periods of time (mainly due to COVID and the lockdowns/health issues that dominated the world), 2021 was predicted to be a year where things would start looking up.
Vaccines for COVID were becoming available and people could actually see an end to all of the loneliness and despair, the health issues and people dying needlessly.
Then 2021 actually came and…well, it sucked even worse. Yes, there were those lights. Things started getting back to some semblance of normal. I got my first shot in May 2021 and my second shot in July. I started being able to go to game days in August, so my gaming world did improve.
But the rest of the world didn’t.
The intensity of the culture wars has gone through the roof, having added the war between people who take the vaccines and try to take care of people, still wearing masks when necessary because we’re not out of the woods yet, and those who believe that the vaccines are evil, that they don’t work, that vaccine requirements are Hitlerian.
Guess which side I’m on.
This isn’t a year in review article, but I still just wanted to mention how much 2021 truly was terrible. The January 6 attack on the US Capitol, countless anti-mask and anti-vaccine protests walking down the streets, still more demonstrations that the world basically sucks right now.
Too many of them to go into here.
On a personal level, I was in a horrible mental place throughout much of the year. Too much going on and not enough mental capacity to deal with it.
However, even with the Omicron wave setting records for COVID infections, things are kind of looking up. This seems like a last desperate gasp for the disease and if we can just weather this storm, COVID may be on its way to becoming more like the flu: potentially deadly (flu kills tens of thousands of people a year) but for a large portion of the population just something else to deal with.
One can hope, anyway.
But then, just as 2021 is ending (literally, the last day and some in the world were already into 2022!), the year decides to give us one more fucking kick in the ass on its way out.
Betty White died yesterday.
Such a bright icon in the sea of idiocy that is the world right now. Whenever she was trending on Twitter, people wondered, but it was always for some very good (and sometimes very funny) reason.
But not yesterday. Sadly, this time it was for real.
Rest in peace, Betty. You will be missed but now, as you said, you know the secret.
Another indication of how much 2021 can just get wrapped up and shot into the sun.
I almost didn’t want to do this blog retrospective, but I’ve been doing it for a couple of years now and I don’t want to let a horrible year keep me from doing what I love doing.
Even though I had some trouble doing it earlier this year.
So with that, let’s get started.
Read MoreDecember 2021 Monthly Update From GMT Games
It’s month three of doing of doing what the fabulous wargaming blog, The Players’ Aid, have habitually been doing for a long while now: an analysis of the monthly update from GMT Games!
Me doing these was endorsed on Twitter by Grant, so maybe I will keep it up even after they start doing them again.
Apparently the November one went over really well, though I learned that I suck at predicting upcoming games.
This month will probably be even worse.
December’s email came in last week but with the holidays and all, I wasn’t able to get to it until this week.
I know, I know. I have to do better!
The first thing I wanted to mention is that it’s pretty cool that GMT is now doing swag! Unfortunately I don’t really do that kind of stuff (from anybody), but if you’re into it, they got it!
The hats and posters look pretty cool. Check them out in the update (which you should definitely click on anyway because there’s no way I can cover it all here).
They did mention that a couple of months ago, but I just now realized I should probably mention it.
Sorry about that.
Anyway, let’s get this party started!
Read MoreApp Review – Evolution: Climate (With a Little Evolution Thrown In)
A couple of months ago, I reviewed Oceans, a sequel of sorts to the great game from North Star Games Evolution.
But North Star is never willing to sit on their hands and revel in the joy of a successful app.
After a kind of bumpy beginning to the Evolution app saga, they righted the ship (adding asynchronous multiplayer really helped with that!) and have been doing some great things since then.
So when news that the standalone immediate sequel, Evolution: Climate, was coming to the Evolution app, I knew it would likely be interesting.
The game was designed by Dominic Crapuchettes, Dmitry Knorre and Sergey Machin with art by Ben Goldman, Catherine Hamilton. It was published by North Star Games in 2016, but the app version just came out earlier this month.
What does the sequel bring to the table?
Weather!
Well, climate, anyway.
And a whole bunch of climate effects, along with traits that take advantage of (or just protect your species from) the climate changes.
How does that work?
Let’s take a look.
Read MoreStorm Above the Reich – After Action Report – Mission #10
We are now three missions into the Staffel Roy campaign for Storm Above the Reich and things aren’t really progressing very well.
The “mid-1943” campaign requires 30 victory points (VP) to “not lose” and I’m at a total of 5 in 3 missions. I need 3 per mission to actually reach “not lose” and there are only 10 missions in the “mid-1943” season.
Things aren’t really looking up!
I sometimes feel like banging my head against the wall.
But I will persevere!
At least Ehrhoff has lost his Green status (sorry, Zilla, you’ll have to find somebody else to back). Clausen is wounded yet again and things are all right with the world (sort of).
Just to remind you, I am using the “Advanced Rules” for pursuing Fallen bombers, which means that I have to actually destroy a bomber to get VP.
If I survive to the next season, maybe I’ll do the Vector Map!
Anyway, let’s see what happened on this one.
I’m kind of dizzy from all that head-hitting, so I don’t actually remember.
Read MoreApp Review – Maracaibo
Have you ever wanted to just get slammed upside the head repeatedly by a deck of cards?
No, just me?
Well, it’s a good thing that you probably don’t suck at Maracaibo as much as I do, so you’ll probably actually enjoy not having that feeling.
Though some people pay good money for that…
What’s Maracaibo?
Maracaibo is an economic exploration game of colonization designed by Alexander Pfister with artwork by Fiore GmbH and Aline Kirrmann. It was published by Capstone Games in 2019.
The app version (which this is a review of) was just released on December 20, 2021 by Spiralburst Studio.
Yes, I did say “colonization” above. Before we go any further, let me show you what’s in the rules section of the app as well as the rulebook from at least the current printing of the game (I don’t know whether it was in the original rulebook or not).
Is that enough to ease any discomfort you might feel playing this game?
That’s up to you.
(Note that you can always click on a picture to enlarge it)
How does the app measure up?
Let’s take a look.
Read More
Dude! Take Your Turn! 