2005 in review

2005 was my first full year of "euro gaming", so it's not saying much that it was the best year ever. As years of my life without decent games went, however, it's right up there. I now own more games than I have room for, play more games than I can remember, read rules to more games than I own, and buy games that I may never play. 2005 was the year that I decided BGG was worth supporting, the year I started listening to gaming podcasts, the year I started reading gaming blogs, and the year I started my own.

Games Played

In my BGG profile I have games played for 2005 at around 535, but I didn't really get serious about recording them until late. The correct total is more like 1000.

Games Purchased

I bought 43 games in 2005. That's a game every 8.5 days. Of those, I played the following:

• Around the World in 80 Days
• Carcassonne: Traders & Builders
• Coloretto
• Die Magier von Pangea
• Domaine
• Ingenious
• Jambo
• Kahuna
• Keythedral
• La Città
• Lord of the Rings
• Modern Art
• Nobody But Us Chickens
• PÜNCT
• Rheinlander
• Rook
• Ticket to Ride
• Tongiaki
• Tower of Babel

Of the games I bought, I only played the following online:

• Amun Re
• Carcassonne: Inns & Cathedrals
• Caylus
• China
• Gipf
• Medina
• Meuterer
• Princes of Florence
• Ra
• San Juan
• Through the Desert
• Torres

The games I bought but that are still unplayed:

• Bohnanza
• Entdecker
• Evo
• In the Shadow of the Emperor
• Liberte
• Louis XIV
• Magna Grecia
• Merchants of Amsterdam
• Oltre Mare
• Samurai
• Werewolves of Millers Hollow
• Zertz

Games I Want

Of the games that came out this year, there are a few I did not purchase for various reasons:

• Das Ende Des Triumvirats: Wasn't available
• Kreta: Wasn't available
• Mesotopamia: No rules available online
• Railroad Tycoon: Waiting for board warp solution from Eagle
• Tempus: No rules available online

Disappointments

These are some games whose rules I read (or information I viewed) that had me completely underwhelmed:

• Alexander the Great: Bad rules.
• Antike: Almost bought it. Thank you Chris Farrell.
• Aqua Romana: Not interesing enough.
• Beowulf: Boring.
• Byzantium: Too much fiddle for the bang.
• Hacienda: Doesn't sound fun.
• Indonesia: Shrug.
• Kaivai: Boring.
• Palazzo: Knizia fails me?!
• Shadows Over Camelot: Too subjective.
• Siena: Too artsy and unintelligible.

Other Disappointments

These happened in 2005, but were games not published in that year:

• Adel Verpflichtet: Too weird and random.
• Reef Encounter: Although busy, I thought the rules were solid. Played online and hated it. Thank you SpielByWeb.
• Timbuktu: I don't see the game here.
• Vinci: Fun but not good enough to own.

Looking Forward

In 2006, the things I am most looking forward to:

• BGG Design: I hope all the recent changes to BGG settle into something I can tolerate without massive amounts of Adblock, ChromEdit, GreaseMonkey, and Platypus work (all Firefox extensions). It could be so good...
• Board Games With Scott: Scott Nicholson's video blog (vlog) about board gaming. Hot!
• Podcasts: I love all the gaming podcasts!
• Blogs: I read about 10 gaming blogs now. I hope they continue to increase in quantity and quality in 2006.

I'm hoping to pick up the following games this year:

• Das Ende Des Triumvirats
• El Grande
• Goa
• Keythedral Expansion
• Kreta
• Medici
• Taj Mahal
• Winner's Circle (Royal Turf)
  

See you in 2006!