by Wyckyd
After reading this blog post by SeanXor I wanted to jot down my own Most Played Games of 2013. I've chosen to limit myself to my top 8:8. Love Letter (7 plays)
I am still impressed with the amount of game is packed into this small set of cards. True, most of the time, the card you have to play is pretty obvious, but that still leads to a few interesting decisions. And given the short time it takes to play a game, that is great ratio.
7. Las Vegas (7 plays)
Las Vegas is a simple dice game that brings out the worst in people - the "if I can't have it, nobody will" mentality. Seldomly have I seen a game cause players to discard caution and common sense in order to win big of to get back at someone. Las Vegas seems eerily well themed.
6. Sushi Go! (8 plays)
I picked up Sushi Go! through the Indiegogo campaign. Having seen the artwork and reading the description "very light 7 Wonders" I decided to pledge. Still very glad I've picked this up, because the art is just a great draw and the game itself is quick and fun.
5. Lewis & Clark (8 plays)
Unsurprisingly, most of the games in this list are smaller, lighter games. Games that can quickly be played with gamers and not-so-gamers alike. But Lewis & Clark does not fall into this category: it is a deep, brain burny game that usually takes around two hours to play. But this is a game that was really well received in my gaming group, and more importantly, by me. Before Essen it wasn't even on my radar, because the list of Essen releases is long and I cut everything that takes longer than 90 minutes to play. But at Essen we sat down with the designer and I was just blown away by the mechanics, how well they integrated with the theme, by the attention to detail, by the art..
4. The City (11 plays)
A quick game that I've bought as a birthday present for a friend. Who then bought it as a birthday present for someone else. The game itself actually doesn't enthrall me as much, but sheer accessibility has put The City on a decent number of plays.
3. The Resistance and The Resistance: Avalon (13 plays)
Though I do track the plays for these games separatly, I felt that for this list I could combine them. With more experienced players I prefer playing Avalon, but to me there is hardly no difference between The Resistance and The Resistance: Avalon. I love them both, and love that this is both a game I can play with experienced gamers and with people who are unfamiliar with modern boardgames.
2. King of Tokyo (21 plays)
When I first heard about King of Tokyo, I feared that this would just be yathzee with a theme painted thinly onto it. How could I have doubted the genius of Richard Garfield so? This quick playing dice-fest has become a staple filler when we are waiting for the last player to arrive, or to play at the end of the evening. The simple mechanics always provide some interesting decissions, but King of Tokyo is also responsible for some very memorable moments where everybody tentatively awaits the last spinning die to come to rest.
As a side note, I've played with the Power Up expansion but did not enjoy it. So I haven't even taken a look at the new expansion that was released this year, and think I'll probably never will.
1. SOS Titanic (22 plays)
Most of the plays I registered for SOS Titanic happened right after Essen where I got this game. And it feels kind of weird to have this be my number one, but I regard gaming a social endeavor but all but one of these plays have been solo games. Nevertheless, Bruno Cathala and Ludovic Maublanc have really created a great game here, daring to take the wellknown game Patience and add flavor and special abilities to it. What I like most about it, you have a more attainable goal: 'Save as many people as you can' instead of 'Try to clear all the cards'.
When I was younger, I would sometimes play Patience, but would get frustrated with getting stuck. I would then allow myself to cheat a bit, instead of redealing the entire game. I feel that SOS Titanic's action cards do just that, and have made it legal.