I Need This Board Game...

This was my first year tracking my plays, so my 2018 H-Index and All-Time H-Index is 18. What an H-Index refers to is "N" number of games played "N" numbers of times, which in my case means I played 18 games at least 18 times. In this post, I'll just discuss the games that hit this magical number of being played 18 times, which in this case actually means 20 games #11 (tie) - Race for the Galaxy (18 times) For many years, Race for the Galaxy has been my favorite card game and that has not changed - yet. There is another game that I will mention in a bit that has been closing the gap, thanks to being able to play it online. Anyway, Race for the Galaxy is an excellent engine-building game set in space that for me always feels very thematic. The way the developments and planets combo together make sense and true to its name, the last few turns definitely feels like a race as players see that the game is ending and do what they can to snag those last few victory...

# of Players:  3-5 Playtime:  2-3 Hours Core Mechanic:  Pick-Up and Deliver Theme:  Trains Type:  Euro Weight:  Heavy Year:  2009 Rating: 9* Trains make an excellent board game theme. When I first started playing board games, it was shortly after Steam was released which shot up to near the Top 10 on BGG. This instantly drew me in, especially since Martin Wallace had a lot of board games near the top of the rankings at the time, such as Brass. I think this was actually the first train-themed board game I played, even ahead of the gateway Ticket to Ride. Well, this is just an amazing game, one of the best pick-up and deliver games I have played, and definitely the best train game that I have experienced yet. There are two ways to play Steam - the Base game and the Standard game. I don't think I would ever play the Base version because there is so much depth to the Standard and I would prefer everyone I play with to just lea...

I feel like it was a pretty good year in which I was able to play almost a quarter of my Top 100 Games I Want to Play from last year. I was also able to continue my streak of playing the number one game on my list. Some of these may end up making my Top 100 or Top 150 Games of All-Time list, but some of these also may have fallen flat for me. So I thought I would put together a short summary of the games that I played, where they had ranked on my 2018 Top 100 Games I Want to Play List, and note where they ended up on my new rankings, if they did. Since the latter will be a bit of a spoiler, I will black it out and you can highlight the position if you wish. Gaia Project (January 2018 - #1) 2019 Ranking: #1 When I first heard there was a sequel coming out for Terra Mystica that was set in space, I was instantly hooked. At this point, Terra Mystica was my favorite game of all-time and space themes just click with me, so it was a win-win. Then I eventually played it and was blown awa...

# of Players:  1-4 Playtime:  2-3 Hours Core Mechanic:  Tile Placement Theme:  City-Building Type:  Euro Weight:  Heavy Year:  2012 Rating: 9* SimCity was one of my favorite computer game series growing up. When I first started playing board games, I was quite disappointed that there wasn't a good implementation of city building. It seemed like it would be the perfect theme for a board game! A couple years later, this game was released under a lot of hype. Although it was city-themed and looking at the tiles laid out you could tell that you were building a city, visually it wasn't too appealing to me. Maybe it wouldn't exactly be SimCity: The Board Game but perhaps it could scratch that itch? In the game, each player is actual building their own city that is part of a larger region with their opponent's cities. Each player starts off with three hex tiles - Suburbs, Community Park, and Heavy Factory. To expand their city, p...