Taking Stock

One of the very few resolutions that I made for myself this year was to record every board game that I played over the next 365 days.  As an extra measure of potential self-torture, I also decided to record how I did in those games.  I'm not a particularly hyper-competitive, but I do like winning and I'd love to know if I'm actually any good at this stuff.  Yes, there's a bit of narcissism involved, but it could be fun, right?  RIGHT???

Last week, we played the newest "Key" game, Keyflower, along with some Blokus, my new game crush Got It, and the super slick worker placement game Stone Age.  As expected, I won the puzzle and math game, but struggled with the economic games, placing 4th in Keyflower and 3rd in Stone Age.

I say struggled, but I actually didn't do THAT bad at either game.  Keyflower was new, but I had fun and I'm ready to give it another shot.  Not Ito make excuses, but I tried a new approach to Stone Age and I think I did about as good as that particular strategy allows.

But puzzle games are my bag, and I feel like any game of Ubongo, or Ricochet Robots or the like is mine to lose.  Maybe this is an arrogant attitude to have, but that's what I'm hoping this year of tracking games plays might shed some light on.

This week was more of the same, although with a couple of unexpected results.  We kicked off with some 3 player Magic: The Gathering, where 2 of us got stomped.  Cue the cries of mana screwage and lousy draws here.  Next up was a game of Ubongo Extreme, and after a tie-breaking play-off I managed to take the victory.  After that was a game of the light civilization game 7 Wonders, where I not only won but scored my highest score to date (72).

The last game of the night was the strangest, but the most satisfying.  Anyone who's into games knows that Le Havre is no joke.  As one of the deepest and most re-playable economic games out, it takes a lot of effort to put together a winning run, especially against good players.  The game ended with no clear leader and despite a valiant effort, I managed a last place finish.  Still, the fact that the scores were 284 to 264 to 254 was a testament to a well-played game.  This was one loss that I don't feel particularly bad about, and I can't wait to give it another go.

After yesterday, I'm going to try and include scores in my records for the year.  Sometimes a loss is easier to accept with some context, especially if you're talking about a very narrow margin.  Games are all about having fun, and a job well done is fun no matter where you place.