azul – Sundered Realm

2022 20×5 Review

In 2021 I set up a 10×10 goal for board games. It was fun, but I didn’t actually complete the goal of playing 10 specific games 10 times over the year (made it to 72). I still had a successful gaming year (played 174 games, many of which were not on the 10×10) but I didn’t like the fact that I “failed.” In reviewing my gaming history for the year, I realized I had a lot of games I played 4-6 times. Hm. A 10×10 results in 100 games being played. A 20×5 also results in 100 games being played, but with more variety. I decided to try that for 2022. I thought I made the concept up. I didn’t. 🙂 There are plenty of different configurations that people use; a 10×10 just seems to be the most popular.

How did my 20×5 go for 2022? Fantastic! Not only did I finish, but I had my best gaming year ever since returning to the hobby. Continue reading “2022 20×5 Review”

Board Game Geek Top 100 Checklist, Part 6

I have written a series of posts looking at the Board Game Geek (BGG) top 100 games, checking to see if I had the game in my collection and talking a little bit about each one, if I could. At the end of the first fifth games covered I owned 19 of them, for a 38% ownership rate. I also had one game that I formerly owned but had sold, so it didn’t get counted. Today I will cover games ranked from 50 up to 41.

For all posts in this series check for the BGG Top 100 tag. Continue reading “Board Game Geek Top 100 Checklist, Part 6”

Zoom For Games

Covid sucks. I have barely been able to get out of the house. On the plus side, my car insurance company gave me a rebate, so there’s that…

But what do we do about social events like board games? How does that work? I have played games with my sister (remote in Colorado) as well as local friends (local meaning each in our own houses, they just happen to be our normal board game partner family). As we have played I have slowly figured out some things that help (or hurt) the board game experience, so I thought I would share. Continue reading “Zoom For Games”

First Impression: Patchwork

My wife loves to quilt. That’s not normally the way I would introduce a board game post, but in this case it’s relevant. There are styles of games my wife likes to play, and styles of games she is less comfortable / interested in. If I can find something that she likes, the odds of being able to play it go up! It also helps if it’s short. Patchwork fits all of those criteria. Continue reading

Game Day Lunch: Carcassone + Azul

I had forgotten how fun Carcassonne is. It’s a fairly simple tile-laying worker-placement game that takes less than ten minutes to teach. Today I introduced our Game Day Lunch crew to this game, as none of them had played before.

Carcassonne is an actual city in France, with a history that dates base thousands of years. It has been at times under Celtic, Roman, Spanish and of course French control. The architecture of the city influenced the graphics of the game. None of this impacts how the game is played, but it’s fun to know. Continue reading “Game Day Lunch: Carcassone + Azul”

First Impression: Sagrada

Tonight we pulled out Sagrada — a game that we picked up after our pleasant experience with Azul. Sagrada is a similar game in that you are picking (drafting) things and placing them on a grid. Both games are also based on historical elements: Azul is based on Portuguese wall tiles, and Sagrada is inspired by famous stained glass windows in Spain from the church of the same name.

Sagrada is different (more complex) in that the items you’re drafting are dice with different colors and numbers. How does it look? How does it play? After two games I’m now ready to at least write up my first impressions. A first impression post is written after only a few plays. A full-fledged review will come after longer experience with the game. Continue reading “First Impression: Sagrada”

Weekend Gaming Session Report

Dead of Winter Cover Art — Dead of Winter

Our regular gaming friends came over today for a weekend gaming session. We played one game of Hellapagos, a game of Azul, five rounds of Codenames with the kids, and we ended the evening with a couple of fast games of Skulls. Our longer afternoon game was Shadows Over Camelot and our evening game was Dead of Winter. For DoW we attempted “Home Sweet Home” on easy mode.

Spoiler alert: We did not make it. Continue reading “Weekend Gaming Session Report”

Azul – A Beautiful Mosaic

Title: Azul
Players: 2-4
Play Time: 30-45 minutes
Designer: Michael Kiesling
Publisher: Next Move / Plan B
Year: 2017

Overview
Azul is one of the newest games in my (ever-growing) collection, and I can already tell I am going to be bugging my friends to play it. It seems deceptively simple, but I’m sure there are nuances and depth that I’ve not yet discovered. If not, well, I bet I will have played the game often enough to make it worthwhile. Continue reading “Azul – A Beautiful Mosaic”