RogerBW's Blog

2021 seemed to involve more talking about boardgames than actually playing boardgames.

No boardgame conventions meant I wasn't trying many new games, or so I thought – but my logs show that I played more than sixty games that I'd never played before (many of them on BGA). Didn't buy most of them, though; and I'm trying to get rid of some games that I rarely find myself in the mood to play…

My Eddington number for games in 2021 (the largest number E such that I have played E different games at least E times each, also known as an "H factor") was back down to 10, with Rallyman, Rallyman GT and my regular yucata games making up the bulk of that. My overall Eddington number has risen from 19 to 20.

The Marlow group has cautiously returned to face-to-face meetings in a pub, but it's still quite small.

I didn't do any formal challenges, but I'm planning to try 52 game again in 2022.

I played a whole lot more Letter Tycoon... then suddenly completely lost interest in it. I felt that I was already playing the best game I could, and too much of the game depended on who got the B and J patents first.

I finished and released my Flamme Rouge software, which can be used to run single races or tours as play-by-forum games.

I've been doing a monthly boardgaming podcast with Lee Broderick.

Last year, I wrote: "At the time of writing Airecon is hoping to run in April. I have my doubts, but also some slight hope." This is true again.

This year's newish-to-me games that particularly impressed:

Not Yet Released: ORGANISM, a perfect-knowledge zero-luck game of growing and eating. Really looking forward to this.

Liked It So Much I Bought It: Lemminge, played on yucata.de since 2020, and in 2021 I finally found a copy at a sensible price (and imported it from Zagreb, which I'm old enough to think is kind of cool). (Also Xia: Legends of a Drift System. Also the next entry.)

They Made This Game For Me Why Didn't I Notice: A Touch of Evil, colonial-gothic horror – yes, by the same designer as Fortune and Glory and Last Night on Earth and there's a bit of an Ameritrash sensibility, but something about this just works for me.

Shouldn't Like It But I Do: Mysterium Park. The creepy circus theme has nothing to say to me, but I could certainly see the cut-down gameplay working as a modification to full-size Mysterium.

My List of Shame (games that I own, that aren't up for trade, but that I have not yet played) at the end of the year:

• Among the Stars: Revival
• Assembly
• Odyseja
• New Dawn

All of these were on last year's list too, so at least it's not getting longer. And three out of four are also on the "will sell this if I get a decent offer" list.

Leaving Earth: Stations did come off the list, as well as D-Day Dice (Second Edition).

Kickstarters that arrived:

• Steampunk Rally Fusion
• the Star Realms bits of Epic Jungle
• Railroad Ink Challenge
• A War of Whispers + Dark Alliances
• Gladius
• Air Leader expansions (Hornet Leader, Cthulhu Conflict)
• Riftforce
• Project L Finesse

Kickstarters still pending from 2020 or earlier:

• Ell Deck (oh, Bez, we know you're lying when you say you have a plan to get this out, so why not lie more and promise a date?)
• Rallyman Dirt (expected in May)
• Sakura Arms (expected in June)

Kickstarters newly backed and not yet arrived:

• V-Commandos (V-Sabotage) Ghost (expected in April)
• Aeon's End: Legacy of Gravehold (expected in February)
• Sentinels of the Multiverse Definitive Edition (expected in February)
• Hidden Leaders (expected in April)