2012 - A Summary

Games

A combination of missing the normal cons, plus extended periods of working away, meant that I only played approximately half the number of games I played in 2011.  However my choices for this year are:

Game of the Year

Kolejka – aka the Polish queuing game.

Great theme, simple to play, slightly ‘thinky’ but not too much, a bit of ‘take that’ and good fun.  Not strictly released in 2012, I first played it at Midcon in 2011 but the international edition came out this year.

Runners-Up

King of Tokyo – glorious dice-throwing monster-fighting game

Tumblin’ Dice – yet more dice!  (Tumblin’ to be exact)

Bullfrog Goldfield – brain-bustin’.

Con of the Year

This year I managed to miss Manorcon, Midcon and Essen.  But of the ones I did attend, it had to be:

The Cast are Dice – great venue, good food, great people, crap hotel (well 3 out of 4 can’t be bad)

Geocaching

Again about 50% down on 2011, mainly due to the crap weather that dominated the year.  However we did add Gibraltar, Morocco, Jersey and Norway to the countries we have cached in.  So to the awards:

Cache of the Year

 Well it had to be  GC3Q9RE – Caching Heroes Number 1: Slogger007

Placed by Team PDB&G in my honour.  Many thanks to Matthew and family.  Of course I claimed the FTF on it!

Caching Event of the Year

Easy: the Geolympix in Oxford in July.  11 icons in 11 hours including our first Wherigo and first CITO.

Caching Day of the Year

15^th July – 136 caches found in the Nevada desert.  Epic!

Books

I’ve read 17 books this year which must be my adult record.  The best ones being:

Best non-fiction reads

Cider With Roadies – Stuart Maconie

CAMRA's Good Beer Guide 2013 – Roger Protz

Best fiction (in reading order)

Roman: The Fall of Britannia – KM Ashman

Hereward: The Devil’s Army – James Wilde

The Leopard Sword – Anthony Riches

Spartacus: Rebellion – Ben Kane

1356 – Bernard Cornwell

The Wolf’s Gold – Anthony Riches

The Bourne Identity – Robert Ludlum

Roman II: The Rise of Caratacus - KM Ashman

Comedy

 Rich Hall in Cirencester & Simon Evans at the Arts Centre

Music

Best Live gig

1. John Otway at the Vic
2. Jack White at the Ally Pally
3. From the Jam & the Blockheads at the O2 Academy Bristol

Best Album

1. England keep my bones – Frank Turner [OK I know it was 2011]
2. Boys & Girls – Alabama Shakes
3. Blunderbuss – Jack White

Tech of the Year

Kindle Paperwhite – goodbye paper!

Year as a whole

 Overall 2012 will be remembered as the year of sport:

• London 2012
• Chelsea winning the Champions League
• Swindon winning League 2
• Glaws continuing to dominate Barf
• The Ryder Cup triumph
• England beating India in the test series in India
• Bradley Wiggins winning the Tour de France.

 Not that I voted for the SPOTY, but if I had done it would have been:

1. Bradley Wiggins
2. Mo Farah
3. Sarah Storey
4. Alistair Brownlee

Seven Wonders

An impression, not a detailed review

I joined a small, but friendly, gaming group in Swindon in Autumn 2006. On night #1 we played Age of Steam – my initiation into the age of modern gaming had begun. The group members have pretty similar tastes in the main, and I can never recall any serious falling out over choice of game. We all have our preferences – they can generally be accommodated and, if not, they find table time elsewhere when everyone around the table will enjoy them.

We are definitely followers of the Cult of the New. With the exception of fillers, we tend to play new games each week. Or at least that was the case until a few weeks ago. In the last four years very few games have made it to the table three weeks in a row: I can only recall Agricola, Le Havre and Automobile doing so. Of course there are other ‘staples’ that we regularly return to, most notably Ra, Power Grid and Steam. The latter two being highly variable because of the range of different maps available for each.

Since Christmas we have held nine Tuesday game sessions. Seven Wonders has been played no less than 13 times and at seven of these sessions. So what has made this game buck the trend? Why do we continue to play it?

Firstly a little history. Seven Wonders was definitely the ‘hit’ of Essen 2010 – maybe not to the same extent as say Agricola or Dominion in previous years, but definitely had the ‘buzz’ coming out of the show.

Since its release last October it has risen to 15^th place on Boardgamegeek, easily the highest of the latest Essen crop. I first played it at Midcon in November 2010, playing it 4 times with up to 7 players. I then ‘helped’ Father Christmas procure a copy and it duly arrived, as if by magic, under the Christmas Tree.

The game in a nutshell

• - Civ-building game, based on one of the Seven Wonders
• - Plays 3-7 players
• - Takes around 30 minutes, slightly quicker with experience
• - The playing time is constant irrespective of the number of players
• - Simultaneous card drafting
• - 18 decisions per game
• - Generally plays differently each time

The good

• - Scales well
• - Quick playing time, you generally play at least twice
• - You feel that each game is different
• - Elements of strategic and tactical play
• - It is fun!

The bad

• - Maybe a bit lightweight for some (not for me, I love lightweight!)
• - Nothing else

It helps that we all enjoy playing the game; there is no dissent on that score. There are many paths to victory and each game feels fresh and new. As the playing time is so short, even if you finish with a low score, your first thought is to re-shuffle the cards and have another go. Still a great game – destined for my Top 10 methinks.

It is also somewhat ironic that we have recently discovered Glory to Rome, a more involved game (that we also enjoy) that has some similarities to Seven Wonders. We have now played it two weeks in a row, but will it last?

Any pictures above are copyright Boardgamegeek.