It’s 2020 and that can only mean it is time to take a retrospective look at 2019. What did we play? What did we buy? And what are we looking forward to in 2020.
Games Played
Most Played Games in 2019:
Legendary: A Marvel Deck Building Game 102
Don't Mess with Cthulhu 81
The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game 78
Rhino Hero 33
Rhino Hero: Super Battle 33
Time's Up! Title Recall! 24
Celestia 23
Menara 14
Roll Player 10
Star Wars: Imperial Assault 10
Honorary Mention: Click Clack Lumberjack, Flick 'em Up!: Dead of Winter, Mascarade all received 8 plays.
Looking back at the 2019 games, there are definitely fewer repeat plays overall. Legendary remains at the top with around the same number and Don’t Mess jumps into 2nd place from nowhere. Lord of the Rings more than doubles its plays, which makes sense as we have played it pretty heavily since starting the saga expansions.
After that it’s all change, last years list was heavily influenced by solo gaming, as I played a lot of Imperial Settlers and Menara solo. This year all my menara plays have been with the family, not because I got bored of it solo but because it is no longer at my flat. Roll Player however saw half a dozen solo plays but overall I’ve been doing less solo gaming in general.
Imperial Assault managed to squeak back on the list after a year in absence, this was due to us playing a couple of the app driven campaigns in Legends of the Alliance.
Most Played of all time
Legendary: A Marvel Deck Building Game 662
The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game 428
Timeline: Music & Cinema 122
Click Clack Lumberjack 106
Zooloretto 102
Rhino Hero 101
Don't Mess with Cthulhu 98
Pandemic 88
Star Wars: Imperial Assault 88
Celestia 83
The top six games have all passed the 100 mark and actually since then Don’t Mess With Cthulhu has done so too, despite not even being on the list last year. Dropping off the list entirely are Carcassonne, Elder Sign and Flash Point Fire Rescue, despite all of them receiving at least one play this year.
The interesting thing about this list is the schism between the types of games. They are all either short games that can obviously be played quickly and often or they are long campaign or thematic style games. Only Zooloretto and Pandemic are the outliers here, both on the list because they were early gateway games that got played a lot when I owned fewer games.
For next year I predict that Don’t Mess and Celestia will both have risen and that Pandemic will have potentially fallen off the list. Imperial Assault should cross the finish line into the 100 Club before the year is out.
Lifetime Achievements
Total Games Played 4695
Total Different Games 110
Total Games Played 679
5000 plays is in sight. This year I played just shy of 700 games and a lot of that is due to short games being played often but I have also played a not insignificant number of long games like Quest for Middle Earth, 7th Continent and Battlestar Galactica.
Across the year I played a total of 110 different games, 13 of which were not in my collection, but that means I played, roughly, two fifths of the games I own this year.
Nickels & Dimes
All time plays breakdown to 157 games played at least 5 times each, with 31 games played at least 31 times. So that is roughly half of my collection has seen at least 5 plays and at this point I would say that if I play a game 5 times I’ve probably gotten my money’s worth. With 200+ games in your collection they can’t all hit the table all the time, but I would like to get roughly half of them to the table once a year.
New Games
Games Owned - 259
Expansions Owned - 357
Erm… I didn’t buy any new games this year… honest… That’s a lie… I bought so many! I need help! Flick ‘em Up Dead of Winter, Junk Art, Roll Player, Everdell, Cartographers, Mice & Mystics, Tail Feathers, Pantone, Letter Jam, Museum, Dale of Merchants, Skyward, Chronicles of Crime, Zombicide Invader, Millennium Blades, Comanauts, One Night Werewolf & Adventure Games Dungeon.
I also bought Zombicide 2nd Edtion and Marvel Champions but they haven’t delivered yet so they don’t count.
In many ways I was even worse with expansions. I closed out the Descent big and small box expansions, picked up four expansions for Sentinels of the Multiverse, a whole bunch of Lord of the Rings LCG, X-Wing, Imperial Assault and the last two expansions for Zooloretto.
Shelf Of Shame
Total Unplayed Games during 2019 - 38
Total Unplayed at the start of 2020 - 17
I started the year with 22 unplayed games in my collection and I added a further 16 games to that pile over the course of the year, but I did play almost all of the new ones meaning I ended the year with just 17 unplayed games in my collection. Unfortunately some of these have now been on the list for a very long time and I just need to concede that they are never getting played and I should sell them.
Upcoming
As always there are some games on the horizon… TMNT Change is Constant & TMNT Cityfall will deliver imminently. Daring Dustbunnies was due before christmas but it is all silent on that front. Marvel Champions is being held up due to me ordering a playmat with it that has now been delayed, who knows for how long. Finally, Zombicide 2nd Edition is due to deliver at the end of the year but will likely deliver in 2021.
The Future
Last year I said I didn’t have anything I wanted to buy and I bought more games than ever before. So with that in mind here’s what I am excited about potentially buying/playing this year.
Silver and Gold - This little roll & write comes from one of my favourite designers, Phil Walker-Harding whose name has caused me to pick up half a dozen games, all of which I have enjoyed.
Quacks of Qwedlingburg - This one is getting a lot of buzz and has a mechanic that doesn’t really feature in my collection at all so I’d really like to try it out.
Last Bastion & Horrified - Two co-ops that I think would make good Game Night games.
Aftermath - The next storybook game from Jerry Hawethorn with amazing minis and a campaign mode… Count me in.
Detective Club - This one I want to play and add to my collection of Dixit style cards which I now keep together in a single box to play Dixit, Mysterium & Muse with.
Marvel United & Batman The Animated Series Adventures - Finally two upcoming Kickstarters. Batman is the return of Kevin Wilson to the Adventures series. I love the original TMNT and my little brother loves Batman and co-op so hopefully this is a slam dunk. Meanwhile Marvel United combines my love of Marvel with my love of painting Chibis. Only issue here is these are probably launching in the same month! Oh and I’m totally out of storage space for all this stuff!
Well that’s enough looking back next week we’ll be looking forward and setting some goals for the new year. Until then, have fun gaming and we’ll back on Wednesday for a new review.