A Sentence About Every Game I’ve Owned – Part 1

After several years of playing (and owning) games I thought it might be interesting to take stock of my current and past collection, focusing on what the game means to me and why I like it. I got my first ‘proper’ boardgame in 2010 – Tobago, and since then I’ve added over 200 games to this! I’ve copied this list from BoardGameGeek, and I’m sure I’ve probably missed some stuff. Games in red, I’ve since moved on. Games with links I’ve written reviews about! So – here is a short comment on every game I’ve ever owned.

7 Wonders (2010) – I was skeptical about this game for ages until I finally played it at a friend’s house. I thought card games were all boring … 7 Wonders proves that wrong!

7 Wonders: Cities (2012) – I got this pretty much just for the 8th player, but the city cards add a lot to the game.

7 Wonders: Leaders (2011) – Added this to the 7 Wonders collection after Cities. It’s good but not essential.

The 7th Continent (2017) – Enjoyed this game for a while but I’m over it now. It was good but it’s very long.

Abandon Planet (2017) – Great hybrid party/gamer’s game. Lots of fun moments as the world is destroyed around the players!

Adventure Time Fluxx (2015) – Bought this because I love Adventure Time, but … it’s Fluxx.

Age of War (2014) – Nice little dice game. Haven’t played it in years but I keep it around cause I like it, and it’s small.

Agricola (2007) – Bought this after playing Caverna in 2013. I liked it more then, but I think I like Caverna more now. (I really like Uwe’s worker placements)

Alchemists (2014) – This game is good fun but I don’t think it can really be played many times before the ‘puzzle’ wears off. Looking to move it on soon.

Alhambra (2003) – One of my earlier games, it’s a great gateway but I let it go because it was rarely played and I have a few other similar games.

Alien Frontiers (2010) – Discovered this game a couple of years ago but it was hard to get until recently. Picked it up and really got into it for a while. A good dice based worker placement game.

Alien Frontiers: Factions (2012) – This and the below expansion I just got because they add players to the game.

Alien Frontiers: Outer Belt (2014)

Amun-Re (2003) – I bought this game at a con in 2012 because when I picked it up a guy standing next to me raved about it. I did really like the game, the auction system is very cool. Ultimately I sold it as it was rarely played after a few years.

Anachrony (2017) – Superb game, I was lucky to pick up a second hand Kickstarter because the guy who bought it decided it was too heavy. I really like the mechanism for requesting resources from the future.

Animal Upon Animal (2005) – Classic dexterity game for all ages. Especially adults.

Animal Upon Animal: Small and Yet Great! (2011) – Found this tiny version of Animal Upon Animal and picked it up. It’s actually really hard because the pieces are so tiny.

Anomia (2010) – I was taught this game incorrectly and as a result instantly bought it. The incorrect rule resulted in the game being a hilarious, hectic, intellectual tug of war. We still play it ‘wrong’ because it’s so much more fun that way!

Archipelago (2012) – When I first discovered this game I was very excited because it’s basically my dream game. Exploration, empire building, semi-co-operative. While it doesn’t come out so often any more, I still love it and think that no other game comes close to providing the same experience as this one.

Asara (2010) – This game is a fairly interesting worker placement game about building towers. I liked it well enough but eventually let it go since it wasn’t one of the better worker placements I’d had at the time.

Azul (2017) – Got this game early into the Azul hype train and wasn’t disappointed. Interesting gameplay that gets more interactive the more you play it.

Bananagrams (2006) – A classic! This one is my go to gift for people I want to give a game to.

Bärenpark (2017) – Was given this game as a gift and very much enjoyed it. I ended up moving on Cottage Garden because Barenpark gives the same light tetris feel but with less complexity.

Between Two Cities (2015) – Played a friend’s copy of this and liked it enough to get it myself. It’s a great family game. The ‘shared city’ part of the game is a great feature and I thought it was highly entertaining upon being introduced to it.

Blueprints (2013) – A great light dice game that uses the dice as building blocks! Very cool concept, and its a great filler game.

Boss Monster: The Dungeon Building Card Game (2013) – I was quite excited about this game when I found it (cool theme, interesting pitch) but was really let down by the     gameplay. I ended up giving this away soon after getting it.

Brass: Birmingham (2018) – Just played this game for the first time recently and enjoyed it so much I grabbed my own copy! Excited to play it more in the future.

Bring Your Own Book (2015) – Amazing party game! This game is a ‘Cards Against Humanity‘ style game but the prompts are things like ‘Words from a rap song’ and the answers are found in player supplied books. It’s super fun and I highly recommend it!

Burger Up (2016) – A game from a local (Australian) publisher Rule and Make. It’s about making burgers, and it has pretty cool mechanics! I enjoyed this but gave it to my Dad who enjoyed it more.

Cable Car (2009) – One of my earlier purchases, I still love this game. It’s very competitive and can be mean. Still comes out occasionally to this day.

Camel Up (2014) – When I first played this game it was amazing. We played it a fair bit and had some very fun game nights. Unfortunately I got sick of it pretty quick (probably wasn’t helped by a few ‘maths heavy’ rounds…). I ended up selling it to make space.

Carcassonne (2000) – Had a lot of fun with this early on in my boardgaming life. As you can  see below I bought a few expansions to play with. It is hardly played today but I haven’t gotten rid of it. It doesn’t take up too much space and who knows … I might need it someday.

Carcassonne: Expansion 2 – Traders & Builders (2003)

Carcassonne: Expansion 3 – The Princess & The Dragon (2005)

Carcassonne: Expansion 4 – The Tower (2006)

Castelli (2011) – I bought this game because it was on sale. I can barely remember it but I do remember thinking I understand why it was on sale. It wasn’t great.

Cat Tower (2015) – A fun dexterity game about stacking cats. We always argue over who gets Space Cat. One of the cutest games.

Catan (1995) – A must have in the early days. We moved on though, it never got played. I sold it 5 years ago.

Catan Histories: Settlers of America – Trails to Rails (2010) – This is an interesting game. While it shares some mechanics with Catan, it’s pretty different and has some cool rail-building and pick up and deliver mechanics. While I haven’t played it in 5 years, I can’t bring myself to part with it.

Caverna: Cave vs Cave (2017) – Two player version of Caverna. I don’t know if I’ll keep it, it doesn’t really fulfil the Caverna feeling for me.

Caverna: The Cave Farmers (2013) – The first time I played this it was 2013, with 6 players, and we learned from the rulebook on the first play. It was certainly an experience. It prompted me to look into Agricola which I got soon after that play. I eventually got Caverna for myself last year after slowly growing my appreciation for Uwe games. I’m bad at it but I like it a lot.

The Chameleon (2017) – Great party game. An interesting mashup of Spyfall type games and Codenames type games.

Chicago Express (2007) – Apparently this is a ‘My First 18xx’ game. I really like it. It was one of the first games I got where players don’t directly control pieces alone and this blew a few minds.

Chicago Express: Narrow Gauge & Erie Railroad Company (2009)

Chopstick Dexterity MegaChallenge 3000 (2006) – This dexterity game is simply hilarious. Usually comes out when three people who haven’t played it before are around so previous players can watch – it’s a great spectator game.

Cinco Linko (2016) – I had to look this up because the name has changed! I know it as OK Play but I guess that name has terrible SEO. This game is basically Connect 4 but for up to 4 players. It’s a very fun abstract strategy and highly portable!.

Citadels (2000) – A classic. Played this one a lot back in ‘the early days’. One of the first hidden role games I played. It’s fun to break out every now and again but honestly, it doesn’t really hold up against modern lighter, higher player count games.

Clans of Caledonia (2017) – I got this game because it was advertised as ‘heavily inspired by Terra Mystica‘ and I heavily like Terra Mystica. I actually like Clans of Caledonia more now. I like the setting and the market mechanics a lot.

Cockroach Poker (2004) – Cool little filler game. Figuring out how the bluffing system works always breaks my mind but it’s pretty fun once you figure it out!

Coconuts (2013) – The ultimate catapult based dexterity game! This one is lots of fun. I was highly skeptical but playing one round at PAX had me buying it.

Codenames (2015) – I got this when I was on holiday in Las Vegas! I brought it home to Australia where it didn’t exist yet and had heaps of fun playing it with friends. When it was released a month or so later I’m pretty sure I helped make at least 5 sales of the game at my local store!

Codenames: Deep Undercover (2016) – This version of Codenames is actually not that great. It’s really hard because all words are just euphemisms for one of two things.

Codenames: Pictures (2016) – The artwork in this version of Codenames is amazing. I love the surreal card art but we don’t play it much because … it’s just not as good as the original.

Codinca (2012) – An interesting little abstract game. Trying to fulfil objectives in this really feels like a game of 4 way tug-o-war.

Colonia (2009) – We call this game the ‘Sweeping the people into the street game’. My friend bought this on a whim on a visit to the game store and it’s very fun, although can be very analysis paralysis inducing at times. He gifted it to me when he moved away.

The Colonists (2016) – Pretty much as soon as I heard about this game I got it. So much fun but extremely mentally draining. I’ve played the full game three times and loved it each time. Looking forward to this year’s play through.

Colosseum (2007) – Found out about this game via the TMG reprint. It combines some of my favourite mechanics together and we have had a lot of fun playing this one.

Container: 10th Anniversary Jumbo Edition! (2018) – This was kind of an impulse buy for me. Thankfully I really enjoy the gameplay. Bit disappointed with the atrocious  graphic design on this one, really makes it feel like Mercury Games is completely out of touch with the contemporary boardgaming scene.

Cottage Garden (2016) – Picked this one up because Uwe. I liked it well enough but when Barenpark came along I didn’t see a need to keep it any more.

Coup (2012) – Introduced to this game at work. Coup is probably one of my most well played games, unfortunately it hardly gets play any more.

Creationary (2009) – An interesting concept, but I think ultimately everyone just wants to play with the Lego so as a game it doesn’t really work out.

Dead of Winter: A Crossroads Game (2014) – Got this game upon release, and really liked it. It was one of my first ‘thematic’ games and really opened up my tastes to these sorts of games.

Dead of Winter: The Long Night (2016) – Pretty much an auto-buy for me. I was actually pretty disappointed with this, not the game itself but the polish. There were grammatical errors and typos throughout the game materials that weren’t present in the original that made it feel rushed and affected my enjoyment of the game somewhat.

Deception: Murder in Hong Kong (2014) – A friend introduced me to this one, and I was a bit skeptical at first with how loose the rules and gameplay were, but it turned out to be an amazing experience. This is now a favourite at family game night, we really enjoy making up stories to go with our guesses.

Dice Forge (2017) – This is an odd one. AAA game, everything indicates it should be amazing but just seemed to be lacking something intangible. It was cool enough but just felt soulless.

Dominion (2008) – As you can see below, this was a favourite. It hardly gets played these days but when we discovered it it was a big deal! We played Dominion every weekend for a year, and had so much fun doing it. I don’t think any other game has the same ‘pulling off combos’ feel you can get from Dominion.

Dominion: Alchemy (2010)

Dominion: Cornucopia (2011)

Dominion: Dark Ages (2012)

Dominion: Guilds (2013)

Dominion: Hinterlands (2011)

Dominion: Prosperity (2010)

Dominion: Seaside (2009)

Dragon Castle (2017) – Picked this up recently, and have been playing it a fair bit. I will liken it to Azul, I think it fills a similar niche and I’m enjoying it.

Dragon Racer (2015) – An interesting race game that was designed by a friend of mine. I don’t play it any more but I keep it around.

Dungeon Fighter (2011) – This is probably one of the funnest ‘gamey’ dexterity games I’ve found. It is a parody dungeon crawler where players need to perform acts of physical dexterity to defeat monsters. We have had some truly hilarious moments playing this one.

Dungeon Fighter: Fire at Will (2013)

Elder Sign (2011) – I’m honestly not sure why I got this game. It seemed like  a cool idea when I first read about it but then I found it highly ‘eh’.

Elysium (2015) – This is another game that is cool on paper but then just lacks something while you are playing it.

Escape: The Curse of the Temple – Big Box (2014) – This was the first real time game I played and it blew me away! The whole concept of real time dice based gameplay is amazing and I’ve since enjoyed this game and other similar ones a lot.

Ethnos (2017) – Good mechanically, but just felt like rethemed Ticket to Ride or something in the end. Nothing special in my opinion.

A Fake Artist Goes to New York (2012) – This was the first of the ‘hidden traitor that doesn’t know something games’ that I encountered. We have had a lot of fun playing this one. I find it so interesting how different groups develop extremely different meta-strategies for this game.

Farmageddon (2012) – My first ever Kickstarter. The game is pretty decent, and has the best artwork. Unfortunately after I backed (and received) this a bit of a sad story played out afterwards as the creator ended up going bankrupt and I was sent a couple of letters since they technically owed me an 8 card expansion that was promised in the Kickstarter.

A Feast for Odin (2016) – This is my favourite game. I don’t think I need to say more. Oh, if anyone at Z-Man games is reading, I’m about to run out of score sheets!

Feudum (2018) – Mechanically, this game isn’t perfect, but it’s just so much fun to play. The artwork is what initially drew me to the game, it’s so amazing. Can’t wait to play this some more in the future.

Feudum: Windmills & Catapults (2018)

Fields of Arle (2014) – Another game I got because I like Uwe worker placements. I initially didn’t buy this because it’s only two player, but after hearing about the 3 player expansion I picked it up (and got that too when it came out). I’ve only played it a few times (don’t often have few players) but I’ve enjoyed it a lot.

Fields of Arle: Tea & Trade (2017)

Flamme Rouge (2016) – I played this game at a meet-up and was totally excited about it. I got it soon after and then after playing it a few more times sold it on pretty quickly. It just wasn’t as fun for me as it initially seemed.

Flick ’em Up! (2015) – My friend refers to this game as ‘Warhammer for Dummies’ and I think that’s the perfect description for it. Since I saw it announced I was super excited to get this one, and was lucky to snag one for 2015 Xmas.

Flip City (2014) – An interesting ‘Micro Deckbuilder’. I think this was the first TMG game I got.

For Sale (1997) – Fun filler game. But I felt like I had lots of similar games and it didn’t do anything special.

Forbidden Desert (2013) – While this game was interesting it was basically reskinned Pandemic. I like Pandemic but playing Pandemic Legacy made me pretty sick of it. Didn’t see myself wanting to play this again.

Forbidden Island (2010) –  Similar to above. I might add, tins are annoying.

Formula D (2008) – Everything about this game is cool, but for such a light game it just takes too long. This was a reluctant sale.

FUSE (2015) – Played a friends copy of this and thought it was a great party game! I just really like the idea of real-time board games, even though I’m terrible at them!

Galaxy Trucker (2007) – Another somewhat real-time game, this game totally blew my mind when I first played it. I ran out to get my own copy to show to my friends and was really surprised when some of them completely hated it! Galaxy Trucker is a very polarising game and we rarely play any more because of this.

The Gallerist (2015) – My first Vital Lacerda game. I got this because I liked the look of the bits when I saw the box at my game shop. I wasn’t expecting it to be as heavy as it is but it was a nice surprise. I really like the game and still play it often (well as often as you  can play very heavy games).

Glass Road (2013) – Got this because it’s designed by Uwe Rosenberg (and I’m a fan). It wasn’t really anything special for me. Played it a few times and then moved it on.

Goldbräu (2004) – This game should be fun (it’s about beer!), but there is just too much dividing up money.

The Grimm Forest (2018) – This game was another surprise for me. Introduced by a friend, I was taken aback at how fun the gameplay of this one is. I think this game is my one exception for ‘take that’ games, in that it somehow does ‘take that’ in such a way that is absolutely fun and hilarious and doesn’t make me hate the game and never want to play it again.

Hey, That’s My Fish! (2003) – A classic! Played this at a games cafe and then picked up my own copy. There is a surprising amount of strategy hidden under the ice!

ICECOOL (2016) – It might be becoming apparent that I like dexterity games. Ice Cool is … pretty cool. Interestingly designed penguin pieces and a cool innovative nested box system make this game highly unique and highly fun!

Island Siege (2013) – I own this. I think I still own it because it’s small.

Jaipur (2009) – Same as above. But this is a good game. I just never play it.

Junk Art (2016) – The ultimate in simultaneous reverse Jenga. I was very excited to find a single copy of this hiding under some other games when it was ostensibly sold out all across the country. I like the many play modes, we still play this all the time.

 

Well, there you go! Stay tuned for Part 2, coming soon. And please leave a comment letting me know about your first game!