A Year of Boardgaming, 2021 Edition

  

For me, 2021 ended on December 19, when I suffered a sports-related accident that resulted in a myriad of bumps and bruises, plus a serious concussion. (As of this writing I still haven't recovered; in fact, writing this—over several short sessions spanning a handful of days—is a doctor-ordered exercise aimed at retraining my brain vis-à-vis computer screens.)

The rest of the year was a literal blur.

This not only impacted my entire plans for the holidays (farewell home-improvement projects) but also the rest of my winter activities (adieu ski season), not to mention getting back to work.

Boardgaming was also thrown out the window. (A week after the accident, I attempted a game of Comancheria—a medium-complexity affair which I'd played before—and couldn't manage it at all. I had to wait almost another week before my mind could stomach a re-read of the rules.) As as result, some of my self-imposed challenges and late-December gaming days (entire days, I'm telling you) were lost in the wake of the ambulance that carried me, unconscious, to my friendly neighborhood hospital.

And writing about boardgames as the year was coming to a close? Forget it.

So here we are, almost done with the first month of the new year, and me droning on about what I played during 2021. Reminder: I'm just counting physical boardgames, and none of my digital plays.

Mainly because of the ongoing pandemic, but also a bit due to my accident, 2021 turned out to be my worst boardgaming effort since 2006.

GAMES

I played 87 different titles (down from 101 in 2020, an ominous trend), for a total of 356 plays (down from 384—when I used to routinely hit way more than 500 plays in a single year!). I spent 399 hours poring over mapboards in 2020, versus 450 hours in 2020: another sinking metric. Still, that's a bit over 16 full days devoted to boardgaming bliss. Could have been worse, I guess.

Out of those 87 titles, 49 were new to me (up from 42 in 2020—I suppose I felt a bit more adventurous). 

Here are the 10 games I played the most in 2021:

1. Wing Leader (28 plays)

        Second year in a row where Wing Leader earns the top spot in this recap; this WWII air combat game just won't let go of me. And since one of my wargaming buddies and I are replaying the entire war using the game's scenarios, I'm far from done with it. (Our aircraft are just starting to get radios installed...)

2. Arkham Horror: The Card Game (20 plays)

        A card-based cooperative game of absolute horror and creeping insanity, with artwork that will both amaze you and keep you up at night.

3. GIPF (20 plays)

        I hadn't played this classic abstract in many moons, and it felt great to get back into it. The GF and I intend to (re)work our way through the entire series.

4. Friday (16 plays)

        Really clever and challenging (and fast!) solo game, from a designer I usually don't favor.

5. Pandemic Legacy, Season 0 (15 plays)

        By far the least enjoyable of the series. We finished the campaign, but we were glad to be rid of it.

6. Can't Stop (13 plays)

        My youngest daughter discovered this thrilling push-your-luck dice game, hence its resurgence.

7. Black Sonata (12 plays)

        I can't say enough good things about this solo, hidden-movement game. Genius is no hyperbole here.

8. MicroMacro: Crime City (11 plays)

        I never thought I'd enjoy this simple, visual crime detection game, but it ended up in third place on my list of Top 10 games of 2021. Pure fun.

9. Combat Commander: Europe (9 plays)

        Only NINE plays of my favorite game in 2021? What a travesty.

10. Hallertau (9 plays)

        My favorite game of 2021, and one of Uwe Rosenberg's best. About farming, it goes without saying.

PEOPLE

During 2021, I explored the boardgaming world—mainly from my home—alongside 13 different players, down from 36 in 2020 (and 55 the year before). This is catastrophic.

Still, here are the 10 people with whom I played the most last year:

1. Suzie D. (132 plays)

2. Jean-Luc S. (66 plays)

3. François P. (49 plays)

4. Ophélie K. L. (21 plays)

5. William L. (13 plays)

6. Gustavo A. (6 plays)

7. Daniel S. (3 plays)

8. Doris L. (3 plays—my mom, for crying out loud)

9. Héloïse K. L. (2 plays)

10. Diego R. (2 plays) 

To give you an idea, a typical year would have me play about 15 games with the person in 10th place... The situation is starting to feel pretty bleak.

But the GF is hanging on to the top spot, and for the fifth consecutive year. (Which of course makes sense during a pandemic, considering we live under the same roof.) And three of the kids are on the list this year—only Béatrice is missing! 

LOCATIONS

The number of different places where I played boardgames tumbled from 17 in 2019, to 12 in 2020, to only eight in 2021. And that included FaceTime as an alternate home location (with mirror boards duplicating the moves of remote opponents), as well as my frikkin' car—during a particularly long traffic jam due to a harrowing crash on the freeway.

Yes, I always have some kind of game on me.

69% of my gaming was done at home, 20% over FaceTime, and then some games here and there at friends' places when the lull in the pandemic made that somewhat safe. 

Quite a shit year. And I'm not holding out much hope for 2022.

RANDOM OBSERVATIONS

I broke my decade-long streak for my yearly H-index: it went down by 1, to 9. 

(In this context, my H-index is the number (h) of games which I've played a number (h) of times.)

I narrowly failed to accomplish my 10x10 challenge in 2021 (play 10 games 10 times each): I was only missing one play of Combat Commander and one play of Hallertau, both of which would have been stupid easy to pull off were it not for that concussion thingy. So that challenge stays at 10x10 for 2022.

I did clear my other two challenges: 50 solo plays, and 75 wargame plays. This means the 2022 editions are going up to 55 solo plays and 80 wargame plays, respectively.

My favorite game, Combat Commander, currently stands at 454 plays. By now it feels like I've been saying "almost 500 plays!" for years, and I hope that changes soon. I seriously doubt I'll crack that mythical number by year's end, despite my ongoing project to replay the entire second world war through Combat Commander scenarios. One more reason to look forward to the stormy pandemic skies finally clearing up, so I can sit down with my usual opponents on a regular basis.

I launched 2021 with a play of the heavy Clinic, and closed it out with the very light Wits & Wagers (fighting through the concussion-induced fog and confusion). Hey, at least I was able to play *something*.

So what am I looking forward to in the coming year?
I was pretty enthusiastic last time around, anxious to play the new Kanban (brilliant design), Aliens: Another Glorious Day in the Corps! (a steaming turd of a game and my biggest disappointment of the year), Bonfire (an instant classic), Caesar: Rome vs Gaul (enjoyed my single play of this, but need to play more), Imperial Struggle (same!), Dominant Species: Marine (fine but ultimately not for me), plus Stellar Horizons (sadly unplayed, and I don't even have the concussion to blame for that).

In 2022, I'm awaiting delivery of three Kickstarter games: Weather Machine (from the always brilliant Lacerda), Free At Last (Civil Rights movement in the 1960s), and Dutch Resistance (solo Netherlands underground during WWII). Also on the docket, the much delayed 303 Squadron (Polish fighters during the Battle of Britain), Horseless Carriage by Splotter, Alexander Pfister's Boonlake, and Messina 1347 (now that the excellent Praga has put Vladimir Suchy on my radar).

Rounding out the wishlist, a bountiful harvest from GMT Games: Into the Woods (finally gonna try that ACW system, just because this covers the battle of Shiloh), Charioteer (one more racing game!), Mr. President ('cause I'm lucky to have a table that's big enough for that monster) and Red Dust Rebellion (Sci-Fi COIN game set on Mars? I'm in...).

I'll also be spending considerable time further playtesting a prototype of mine; more on that later.

Happy gaming!

 

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