Well, this one is a bit late this month due to finishing
up my “End of 2016” series but now we’ll move on to the games I played in
April. We nearly hit 50 plays this past
month and 29 different games played.
Also, we did quite well in our 10x10 challenge and it has been a ton of
fun getting more plays in. Here are the
stats for our 10x10 after April’s plays.
10x10 Challenge:
Arkham Horror: The Card Game (0 plays in April, 1 total
play for 2017)
Cottage Garden (0 plays in April, 3 total plays for 2017)
Five Tribes (0 plays in April, 2 total plays for 2017)
Gloomhaven (2 plays in April, 2 total plays for 2017)
Great Western Trail (1 play in April, 4 total plays for
2017)
Pathfinder Adventure Card Game (0 plays in April, 9 total
plays for 2017)
Ticket to Ride (1 play in April, 9 total plays for 2017)
Tokaido (2 plays in April, 2 total plays for 2017)
Too Many Bones (2 plays in April, 2 total plays for 2017)
Unfair (1 plays in April, 5 total plays for 2017)
Alright, now that we’ve gone over my 10x10 challenge
stats we can move on to the main part of my post, this past month’s plays. Just sit back, relax and enjoy the read and
thanks so much for taking a look!
Statistics:
Total plays in April 2017 – 47
Total unique games played in April 2017 – 29
New games played in April 2017 – 8
New games acquired in April 2017 – 4
New expansions acquired in April 2017 – N/A
Most plays of a single game in April 2017 – 10
Designer – Christopher Badell/Paul Bender/Adam Rebottaro
Publisher – Greater Than Games/Sentinel Comics
Last play before April 2017 – 3/31/17
Total plays in April 2017 – 10
After picking up more of the expansions of this game on
the app I was able to get a whole bunch more plays in for the month. I love this game and love that I’m able to
take it with me on my phone and able to pull it out whenever I’m able to and
get some plays in. This is still in my
top 10 and I love the game!
Designer – Bruno Cathala/Charles Chevallier
Publisher – IELLO
Last play before April 2017 – 3/11/17
Total plays in April 2017 – 4
Em and I pulled this game out 4 more times in April and
we are continuing to love the plays that we get in. This is a very simple and very fun card
drafting and set collection game with some of the more beautiful art that I’ve
seen in a game. I’d recommend this to
anyone.
Designer – Friedemann Friese
Publisher – Stronghold Games/2F-Spiele
Last play before April 2017 – 3/19/17
Total plays in April 2017 – 2
We pulled this game out with Molly and Dustin and got in
a couple more plays with them. They are
enjoying this game as much as we did our first time through and we are really
enjoying playing it with four players as it feels like a totally different
game! I wish this one would have gotten
a Spiel des Jahres nomination as I think it is a great starter/family style
game.
Designer – Isaac Childres
Publisher – Cephalofair Games
New to me
First play – 4/13/17
Total plays in April 2017 – 2
Wow, we finally pulled out Gloomhaven and were able to
get in a couple plays in April. It is
amazing! This was my number one
anticipated game for quite a while and I am happy to say that it didn’t let me
down at all! The card-play in this
co-operative game really make it an awesome experience. Em, Dustin and Josh are all loving it as well
and we get together for “Gloomhaven Night” once a week to continue the campaign.
Designer – Jeffrey D. Allers
Publisher – Bézier Games, Inc.
New to me
First play – 4/27/17
Total plays in April 2017 – 2
Josh picked this game up this past month and we were able
to get a couple of plays in. This is a
quick, clever little “I split, you choose” game where we are taking and scoring
pieces of pizza. I would recommend this
to anyone as it is super simple and a lot of fun. Plus, as a bonus, the game looks absolutely
delicious!
Designer – Isaias Vallejo
Publisher – Daily Magic Games
Last play before April 2017 – 3/4/17
Total plays in April 2017 – 2
Em and I got in a couple plays of this game in April and
had a blast. I am consistently impressed
by Daily Magic Games and their releases.
These games don’t reinvent the wheel, but they do a great job of
improving upon it! I am at the point
where I’ll take a look at anything that they and Vallejo are doing and will
often pick it up!
Designer – Antoine Bauza
Publisher – Funforge
Last play before April 2017 – 12/31/16
Total plays in April 2017 – 2
Em and I got in a couple plays of this fun, almost
rondel-like game with some of the best graphic design I’ve seen. This game is on our 10x10 challenge and it is
one of our favorites. It is such a
simple idea and I think the Crossroads expansion makes this game much
deeper. We may bring this game on
vacation in June and break it out with our family.
Designer – Adam Carlson/Josh Carlson
Publisher – Chip Theory Games
New to me
First play – 4/27/17
Total plays in April 2017 – 2
Okay, this is the second game that we tried this past
month that is absolutely amazing and will definitely be making an appearance on
my top 10 list when it is revisited later this year. This is a dice and chip game that creates and
almost RPG experience with dice building and rolling as its primary game
mechanism. Everyone I’ve played it with
has loved it and I think it will get a ton of plays, especially with the big
plans the designers have for this game in the future!
Designer – Michael Kiesling/Wolfgang Kramer
Publisher – HABA
New to me
First play – 4/21/17
Total plays in April 2017 – 1
This is one of the games that I was able to pick up in a
trade in April and we played our first game of it. I really enjoyed how simple this game was to
pick up and teach and it is just such an elegant design from the two seasoned
design veterans. This is another game we
may bring to the beach as I think it will go over well with the family.
Designer – Mike Fitzgerald
Publisher – Eagle-Gryphon Games
Last play before April 2017 – 10/12/16
Total plays in April 2017 – 1
Okay, it had been way to long between plays of this
incredible deck-building style, take-that game.
We absolutely love this game and consider it one of our favorites and
this game solidified that. This game is great
and is such a perfect two-player card game that has a theme that my wife and I adore.
Designer – Ted Alspach/Toryo Hojo/N2
Publisher – Bézier Games, Inc.
New to me
First play – 4/24/17
Total plays in April 2017 – 1
Another game that we were able to pick up in a trade this
past month was Colony. I was excited to
try this game out since it was announced a couple years back. This is a solid dice drafting game with some
pool-building and engine building elements.
Designer – Jonathan Gilmour/Isaac Vega
Publisher – Plaid Hat Games
New to me
First play – 4/29/17
Total plays in April 2017 – 1
At International Tabletop Day this year we broke out Dead
of Winter and Josh taught a bunch of us how to play. It was a fun game and I’d play it again anytime
it was pulled out but I’m not sure I’d get it myself. It is nice that it’s on Josh’s shelf! This game definitely reaffirms my belief that
Fernanda Suarez is one of the best game artists out there as her work just
pops!
Designer – Kane Klenko
Publisher – Renegade Game Studios
Last play before April 2017 – 12/18/17
Total plays in April 2017 – 1
Em and I decided to pull out FUSE and take it for a spin
this past month and man did we ever get our butts handed to us! This was one of the worst rounds of the game
that we’ve ever played. That being said,
this is such a quick and fun game that we don’t care if we lose!
Designer – Vital Lacerda
Publisher – Eagle-Gryphon Games
Last play before April 2017 – 1/29/16
Total plays in April 2017 – 1
I looked at when our last play of this amazing Euro game
was and it made me sad! This game is
such an incredible experience and I wish I was able to get it to the table more
often. Em and I finally broke it out and
played it this past month and it is just as amazing as I remember it
being. The production and gameplay of
this beauty is off the charts and I hope we get it to the table more often this
year.
Designer – Shane Willis
Publisher – Mayday Games
New to me
First play – 4/29/17
Total plays in April 2017 – 1
This is the second game we played at International Tabletop
Day this past month. It is a
card/dexterity game where you are lining up the cards on a little plastic
trashcan which doubles as the game’s packaging.
The game was a simple and fairly fun dexterity game although I think it
ended up being just a bit too long for what the game is.
Designer – Alexander Pfister
Publisher – Stronghold/eggertspiele
Last play before April 2017 – 4/1/17
Total plays in April 2017 – 1
Em and I played this absolutely incredible game once in
April and it was a great game. Em is
quite good at this game and she loves to go heavy into the cowboys and really
build up her cows. I love this game and
always look forward to more plays of it.
Designer – Ignacy Trzewiczek
Publsiher – Portal Games
Last play before April 2017 – 1/30/16
Total plays before April 2017 – 1
Wow, here is another game that we broke out that had
sadly been way too long since we’d played it!
Em pulled out her favorite Egyptians and I pulled out the
Atlanteans. She was able to just barely
take me out as neither one of us could really get our engines going.
Designer – Andreas “ode.” Odendahl
Publisher – Stronghold Games
Last play before April 2017 – 2/13/17
Total plays in April 2017 – 1
Em wanted to play a dice game while we were out on a
breakfast date so we brought this excellent little dice drafting game along
with us. This is a great
reimplementation of the dice drafting portion of La Granja and makes it just a
simple, fun and quick dice drafting game.
Designer – Chris Cieslik
Publisher – Asmadi Games
Last play before April 2017 – 3/4/17
Total plays in April 2017 – 1
Em and I pulled out the Mage and the Warrior in this dice
placement game and faced off against the Yeti in his cavern. We were able to get the upper hand against
some of the minions in the dungeon and were able to build up our characters
really well as we defeated the Yeti.
This is a fun rogue-like, dice-rolling adventure!
Designer – Jesús Torres Castro/Matt Leacock
Publisher – Z-Man Games
Last play before April 2017 – 2/28/17
Total plays in April 2017 – 1
Em and I picked up this game and played a round of it in
April and got our butts handed to us!
Actually, that’s not quite fair; we were able to research three of the
diseases but ran out of cards to draw before we were able to research the
fourth and final one. We were just one
turn away from the win!
Designer – Alexander Pfister
Publisher – Pegasus Spiele
Last play before April 2017 – 3/5/17
Total plays in April 2017 – 1
This is another one of our International Tabletop Day
games. I pulled it out while we were
waiting for more people to come and taught it to Josh. I love how quick and easy this game is to
teach and play. As I’ve said before, I find
Pfister to be an amazing designer and this is just another win from him!
Designer – Stefano Castelli/Andrea Crespi/Lorenzo Silva
Publisher – CMON Limited/Horrible Games
Last play before April 2017 – 12/10/16
Total plays in April 2017 – 1
Em and I pulled this game out and played a good round of
it. Em is quite good at this game and
tends to win but I was able to pull out a one point victory this time around…I think
it may have annoyed her that it was that close!
Designer – Rob Daviau
Publisher – Plaid Hat Games
Last play before April 2017 – 2/26/17
Total plays in April 2017 – 1
We got in one play of this game this past month and it
was a solid play. We are definitely
slowing down on this one as it is a bit of a slog right now. I’m sure we’ll come back to finish it at some
point but right now we have a few other games that are keeping our interest.
Designer – Antoine Bauza
Publisher – Matagot/Bombyx/Asmodee
Last play before April 2017 – 2/22/16
Total plays in April 2017 – 1
Em and I pulled out this neo-classic game this past month
for the first time in a while and really enjoyed our play of it. This game is such a simple idea and it is
pulled off extremely well. I give props
to the graphic design team and those who decide on components because this game
does an amazing job of having a high “toy factor”.
Designer – Alan R. Moon
Publisher – Days of Wonder
Last play before April 2017 – 3/12/17
Total plays in
April 2017 – 1
Em and I pulled out the United Kingdom map and played a
round of Ticket to Ride. It was a great
game as usual. This game will be one
that is always on our shelves and we will pull it out with anyone because we
know they’ll end up liking it!
Designer – Joel Finch
Publisher – Good Games Publishing/CMON Limited
Last play before April 2017 – 3/17/17
Total plays in April 2017 – 1
We pulled out the robot and the pirate decks and built
ourselves some amusement parks. Em was
able to finish up a blueprint that netted her a bunch of points which allowed
her to just barely edge me out by 2 points! This is a fun drafting game with some awesome
art!
Designer – Isaias Vallejo
Publisher – Daily Magic Games
Last play before April 2017 – 3/18/17
Total plays in April 2017 – 1
We pulled this game out this past month with Molly and
Dustin and they really enjoyed it! This
is such a great game to break out and teach others as it is just a blast to
play. I didn’t back the expansion but I’ll
be sure to pick it up when it is available.
Designer – Yuri Zhuravlev
Publisher – Mayday Games/Hobby World
Last play before April 2017 – 3/30/16
Total plays in April 2017 – 1
It had been a while since we played Viceroy so we decided
to pull out this great little card drafting/auction/set collection game and had
a blast. We really enjoyed the play but
realized we were out of practice as our scores were far lower than some of our
best ones! I’m glad we could get in a
play of it!
Designer – Hisashi Hayashi
Publisher – Tasty Minstrel Games
New to me
First play – 4/23/17
Total plays in April 2017 – 1
We just got the deluxe version of Yokohama from a
Kickstarter we backed last year and it just delivered this past month! This was one of my most anticipated games and
I’m glad to say that it didn’t let down at all!
In fact the game is quite amazing and I could see it climbing up my
favorites list! And as a bonus, the
deluxe version is absolutely amazing!
New game acquisitions in April 2017:
Adventure Land
Colony
Too Many Bones
Yokohama
New expansion acquisitions in April 2017:
N/A
Alright! There is
another month of gaming in the books and wow was it ever a great one! Three of the games I acquired this past month
have a legitimate chance of making it into my top 10 ten list. Those three are Too Many Bones, Gloomhaven
and Yokohama and they are all great games that I’d highly recommend! Well, there are my plays for the month. Come on back soon as I’ll be doing my
gameplays for May (since we’re basically there already!) and then I’ll be doing
a post on Origins Game Fair 2017. Thanks
so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed it.
Until next time, game on!
