Istanbul Promo

 Got some new promos in for one of my favorite games I got last year!

The Pegasus Depot lets you roll 2 dice and take your prizes, while the Kebab Shop works like the fountain tile but instead you can pay $2 to send your apprentice anywhere on the board. 

I'll definitely be playing with both of these tiles in future games!

The Dabney Cup

 Another annual sport I tried to make into a tradition was an indoor hockey game. 

I even went as far to get a quote from the skating rink on how much it would be to host one there!

We got the name from the Dabney Center, which was something I church was doing at the time. The idea was to get those students involved and all play a game. This would not include "adults" as the others had because we knew no parent in our church would want to play. 

But there were a hardcore 6 of us who played every week and we thought we could make this dream happen.....but we ended up being the only ones interested in holding such an annual game so it folded before it could start. 

Would I bring it back today? Yes. But there would probably be LESS people interested in it today as there were 30 years ago!

The Basketball Invitational

 Last week I spoke about a couple of "sporting game" traditions we had at various times that weren't the Santa Bowl. 

This week I'll tell you about 2 that came close to happening but didn't.

One was an annual basketball game between the adults and the youth. This was back when we were playing baseball once or twice a year and the next sport I wanted to do was basketball. 

Everyone was up for doing it back then but the only issue was we couldn't find a proper place to do it. There just weren't any full courts to pay on in the area back in the day. It's really the only reason we never started this up. 

Would I bring it back? No way! I couldn't last 5 minutes playing full court basketball these days! 

The Summer Classic

 Probably the longest thing we had running before the Santa Bowl was this annual baseball game. it went on strong for about 7 to 9 years around Memorial Day before we finally stopped. 

It was the Youth vs the Adults and this time, I WAS on the Youth. It coincided with the annual Confederate Conference that went on the same weekend. Before the ball that evening, everyone would get together and play a game. 

It was a blast. But once the conference stopped, so did this tradition sadly. I believe it was the very next year that we started the Santa Bowl right after. 

Oddly enough, we even played a "fall classic" in September for a couple of years as well. Would I bring this back? Yes!!!

But the issue is we wouldn't have enough interest to get a game together so I'm not even going to try. 

Have a good weekend folks!

Quest for the Check

 Another one we held for 2 years before closing, was an annual putt-putt golf event. We had a good one in town at the time and I thought it'd be a nice addition to have more events like we did with the Santa Bowl. 

Though I was always terrible at that course, this is another one I won both times and claimed the fake giant check. It was embarrassing spending all that time making the check, only to give it to myself every year, so at the same time as the Turkey Bowl both of these "traditions" disappeared after their 2nd go round. 

Would I bring this one back? No. But only because we don't have any good putt-putt places around here anymore. 

The Turkey Bowl

 So the Santa Bowl wasn't the only thing we used to put on back in the day. For a very short time we also had an annual Turkey Bowl but it was for bowling. 

I won both years (by pure miracle) and afterwards we stopped doing it altogether. 

Would I bring it back? Maybe. It was fun. Participation I know would be there. I'd certainly think about it. 

Air Fryer

 I finally got one a few months ago. I cook in it but still haven't mastered it yet. Meaning some things come out overcooked every time I use it. But I'm getting the hang of it and hope to know more recipies for it this year. 

I have friends who use this all the time and when Black Friday came along last year, I had to get one for myself to try it out. 

Know of any good ideas for it? Let me know, I'm all ears at this point!!

Why do I purge board games?

 

So why am I purging games so much since last year? 

1) It's true when I say I want to play my games more but having more game nights is impossible, so the only other solution is to trim down my collection. This is my favorite hobby but when things begin to feel like a chore I need to change things up. 

Trying to get every game to the table was a nightmare for me at times because I truly feel I wasted my money on a game that doesn't get played. So hopefully cutting more games from the collection will let me enjoy the ones remaining all the more. 

2) My gaming group is dying. I've said this before but 2024 marks the last full year I'm guaranteed to have a gaming grou at all. After 2 of my friends move away in the spring of 2025 I won't have anyone else to play games with. 

I try not to think about it too much because it bums me out. And yes, things could change and I could find other to replace them. I've been lucky to keep a gaming group for as long as I have in the first place. But the girls will be 6 by the time my group eventually dies and though they'll be able to play vintage games with me at that age, it'll take a lot longer before they start playing anything heavy with me. 

So the more I cut the less I have to worry about having this huge collection sit and gather dust. 

Sure I have one more couple who occasionally drop by but they're super annoying at times and I'd rather do without them if I could. 

However, beggers can't be choosers and if push comes to shove I'll move them up to more frequent game nights that I reguarly have. But even then, I don't think I'd like to hang out with them that much. 

Either way, purging games now will help me focus in on better games in my collection and less shelf space to worry about. 

Currently (even with all the cuts I've made) my collection still doesn't fit on the huge kallax shelves I've bought for it. My goal (eventually) would be to have my entire colleciton sitting within those selves. At the moment, I'm still using up 3 levels on another shelf to contain them all, so I've got quite a ways to go in 2024. But hopefully by the end of this year, it'll more managable by then. 

To think, a year ago I almost bought ANOTHER kallax shelf when I visited Dallas but it sold out before I arrived and I ended up not getting it. I'm thankful for that now because it looks like I won't be needing it after all!

PURGE 2024 (10)

These last few were the hardest to cut I think. This one was fun. But again, I have other dice selection games that are better so looking at it from that angle, I had to let this one go. 

Another great game but once again, the mechanics are similiar to other games in my colleciton and this was among the ones who rank the lowest on my list, hence the decsion was made to cut it. 

Stupid AP gamers in my group forced my hand on this one. NO REASON this game should last longer than an hour yet somehow my group made sure it lasted over 3!! Drove my nuts so I finally yeilded to their annoying AP and decided to purge the game instead. 

Great at 4 players. Not as stellar at any other player count. Didn't realize that until this past year and also realized that I mainly play 3 players these days, which meant this game was going to suffer due to that circumstance, so I tried not to get to misty eyed when packing it up. 

Finally, the BIG one! Excellent game (getting a reprint this year) but that's not the reason I let it go. It takes SO LONG to set up!! And it's hard to keep up with all the achievable goals in the game. It had good trade value and even though I enjoyed the game, it was a BEAST to lay out and put up. That reason alone was good enough for me to purge it. 

And that's my list so far folks! What other games will be purged? I have no idea, but I know I'll be keeping an eye out while I'm playing through my collection this year to find out. 

Have a good weekend folks!
 

PURGE 2024 (9)

 

Talk about cutting into the meat of my collection!! Another fun game I loved but took players FOREVER to make up their minds thereby dragging the gme on for 3 hours. (at most this game should only take 2) Drove me nuts every time I brought it our of game night essentially ended with us playing this one game. I love the worker placement in this game but even I would get irritated towards the end of the night because players drug out turn way longer than I thought was humanly possible. 

Ugh! Another hard cut of a game I loved. But I didn't like how it's hard to get professors AND when people established their book as the most popular and then refused to sell many copies on the market (which led to a shortage and thereby keep scoring opportunities away from other players while you could make all the books of your own color and keep them for yourself!) If it weren't for this one flaw, the game would still be in my colleciton today. 

I love coops! But my gaming group doesn't. So this one had to leave my colleciton because it was the lowest of the genre on my list. 

I know. I just got the game late last year and already it's off my list. Nice filler game but once again I realized I just don't need that many filler games anymore. Best to keep with what I have and not add any in the near future unless the current ones in my colleciton grow stale. 

Grrrr.... $5 during Christmas on Eagle Gryphon Games website and I had to let it go because I knew it wasn't ever going to get more that one play a year in my collection. I looked at my list from the bottom up when making cuts and this one was just a victim of being to new on my list and too low to make a difference. 

FINAL purged games coming up tomorrow!

PURGE 2024 (8)

I'm shocked too. But I realized the reason this was only coming out once a year anymore was because the game was getting very repetitive over the years. Now the new version may have changed that and to be honest, I'm not against making a trade someday for the new version of the game but for now, the trade value was high and the gameplays were low so the decsion was made ot cut it. 

Oof! My first back Kickstarter!! Beautiful game, but rarely came out to the table. You rarely got to use a lot of the minis the game came with but in the end I started seeing it as a very pretty game with simple mechanisms that weren't enough to hold my attention. 

Feld strikes (out) again! Man! I thought the gme was fun but my gaming group was not impressed. In fact, I had to keep explaining the rules to them each time because they kept forgetting what to do. Now if this game only came out once a year I'd understand that...but this came out several times after I reviewed it and each time people were lost. So I purged it. 

No surprise here. Good game, but the iconagraphy is enough to drive you insane!! What was Game Brewer thinking when they released this?! Didn't anyone take a look at the instructions and say "Hey, I think we need to trim this down a bit" 

Ugh! I tried hard to keep this game in my colleciton but my gaming group simply couldn't grasp the concept and I'll never know why. It's not a hard game to learn but it just wasn't delivering the message with my gaming group who complained constantly they didn't know what they were supposed to do. I never found this game hard to understand but am I wrong? Is this a heavy game and I just don't know it??

Doubtful, but maybe that was the case. Who knows?
 

PURGE 2024 (7)

I regret not letting this game go earlier. Megan forgets about it every year. I enjoyed the card game but she STILL rarely played it with me. Case in point: This year we watched every single Frosty cartoon. (there's 4 total if you're curious) and not once did she mention to play the card game with me all Christmas long. I knew right then and there, it was time to tell the game goodbye. 

I did enjoy this game. But when it came to game night, I'd rather not spend my time playing dexderity games. This was one of very few I have in my collection so I was fine with making the desicion. Will I regret it when my kids get older? Maybe, but then again....there are plenty of other games to play in my colleciton so I doubt I'll miss it. 

Solid game but out of all the racing games in my colleciton, this one came in dead last. And with its' trade value pretty high, I decided to move it instead of keep it. 

I'm not a Feld fanatic like other people. He's truly 50/50 for me. This was the lowest ranked game of his in my collection and oddly enough, it carries a high trade value, so it went out the door!

Fun game. Very "Ticket to Ride" even though I don't like that game. The bug problem with this one was the game board was hard to tell which city blocks were under development or not. Though fun, it is one of my games that rarely come out to the table anymore, so I cut it in hopes of giving other games a chance to come to the table more often. We'll see in 2024 how that worked out I'm sure. 
 

PURGE 2024 (6)

 

Never let it be said that this purge didn't hurt! This is where I started cutting into the meat of my collection and not just "clearing the fat" like in previous purges. 

I like this dice selection game. In fact it made my Top 100 more than once. But there's just better dice selection games in my colleciton now and this one wasn't hitting the table as much because of that, so I let it go. 

The ONLY reason for this purge was the production issue. I LOVED the game! But I couldn't get over how poor the prodcution was with the outer ring. Slightly bumping the game left us scrambling to put it center again. I can't believe what a massive goof that was! A goof that cause this game to be removed from my colleciton for good!

Whoa boy. This one will be hard to explian to my group when they realize its missing. This was one of their favorites. But after the 3rd adventure, I was finding the gme slightly repititive. Sure as coop's go it's fine. But really it boiled down to luck each time we won. Luck with dice rolls and luck for the different cards that would come out. Too much luck for me to keep on my shelf. 

Another game I loved but no one wants to play it with me anymore, so I let it go. It hurts because I loved this cartoon as a kid. It was one of the few card games I liked playing and it took up virtually no space on the shelf. But that wasn't enough to save it from the PURGE!!!

Beautiful game but one that I didn't see ever rising in my colleciton. It's very middle of the road and I already have too many games that are similiar so this was the first of them to leave me. 

TI4 1st game of 2024 recap

 We had such an epic game yesterday I thought I'd talk about it a bit. 

First off, I was teaching newbies so I'll be honest, I was expecting an easy win.

I didn't get that. These kids caught on fast and gave me a run for my money!

I played as the Winnu, not my favorite race, but since we pick at random I did the best with what I had and that meant trying out a whole new strategy for me....sitting on Mecotal Rex the entire game. Something I NEVER even attempt to do in regular games. But I played to their strength and it was keeping my in the lead.

However when a huge armada invaded my home planet I was unable to score public objectives anymore and had to rely on a secret mission and using the 8 card to score my Rex point. I wasn't going to win that way and I knew it. 

Suddenly, luck would shine on me as my next two action cards I received in the game were "Plague" and "Rout"

With "Plague" I was able to take out the ground troops on my planet and with "Rout" I forced a retreat of the other player to the next space. 

Fearing retribution I sat there hoping he wouldn't because I knew there was no way I could beat his massive fleet. And had this been any other game but Twilight Imperium, I would've lost. Because in TI people can easily lose direction of what the main objective is, which prevents them from thinking straight. And that's what happened when instead of re-taking my home planet he went after Rex instead. 

I wanted to cede the planet over to him I was so overjoyed, but I had to play it cool like he'd gotten me. The entire group cheered as my fleet was quickly demolished. High fives were given around the table as they all thought they'd stop me but in reality, only I knew it was the last round of the game from there on out. 

I used 8 to grab my 1st objective and at the end of the Status Phase, claimed my 2nd objective for the win. I'd had both completed for some time but without a home planet, couldn't claim them. 

I went ahead and showed them their mistake the next day. 

I know the time is ticking on my undefeated streak. In fact, I'm not sure I'll win the next one. But I'm not going to back down from playing either because all good things must come to an end and when it happens for me, I'll gladly shake the person's hand who won. 

It's a great game. 

Santa Bowl I

 Here we go again with our monthly announcements for Santa Bowl 2024!!

This year the date will be 12/14/24 at 1pm at Forsythe Park.

See you next month with more information!

PURGE 2024 (5)

Another game I enjoyed but really wasn't worth keeping around. I kept looking for cheap PVC Capn's to put in the game but the price was always too high and not worth getting. Love the cereal, but can live without the game. 

Another 2 player game I enjoyed but 2 player games really have no business being in my collection so I let it go. 

Good game but mine came with pieces that didn't fit the board. Since I never could figure out which replacments to get, I traded it away instead. 

And now we're FINALLY getting to some modern games to leave my colleciton. This only it the Top 100 once at #100. Good bag builder but only getting played once and no one would ever ask to play it after that. 

 Another one I wish had more to offer. On the surface, it's a fine game. But WILL be repetitive if played enough. On purpose I only played this once a year because players got in the habit of making the same moves each game. Why they couldn't have the option to change up the space (like Francis Drake does) I think was a missed opportunity for this game. Honestly, it they'd have done that I would've kept it in a heartbeat!

Have a good weekend folks! I'll get to the 2nd half of this list next week!

PURGE 2024 (4)

A fun game about "losing" But it did run a little long in the tooth at times so I finally decided to cut it. 

This is not a game. It's a toy. Yes, my girls did enjoy it but it's just a toy disguised as a game. It's trade value was high too which didn't hurt its reason in letting it go. 

Fun bluffing game but like a lot of these games in my colleciton, no one wanted to play it, so it had to go. 

Man! What a sweet game! High trade value but the other reason I let it go was because the battery would were out EVERY year! This thing turns on at the drop of a hat so I guess when I picked up the game or moved it around the shelf it would turn on and wear the battery down. Pissed me off. Plus the game took forever to set up. If my kids are playing a children's dungeon crawl, I've still got Dark World to fall back on, so this game will not be missed. 

 Another 2 player game that served no purpose other than me forcing someone to play it with me every year before returned to the shelf to gather dust. 

PURGE 2024 (3)

 

No one loved this 80's game but me. I thought it perfectly captured the decade. Problem was... no one else I play with remembers (or was a alive during) this decade. So it left the collection. Funny story, the game came back to haunt me not too long ago when Megan went to a flea market in town and took a pictue of this game asking me if I wanted it. 

She had no idea that it had been in my collection for years and she never wanted to play it with me once. 

I was tempted to bring it back in with her promise of playing the game with me, but remembered how she never follows through on those promises, so I told her to leave it on the shelf. (sigh)

I played this game a lot back in the day when I played the app. Then I stopped playing the app and inmmediatly this game stopped being played much too. It's not the game's fault really. I think it's a pretty solid game. But it only got brought to the table once a year and no one was ever asking for it so I decided to part ways with it. 

Another 2 player game I thought was amazing but have ZERO people to play with. Fun fact, you can see this game in Home Alone as Kevin is climbing Buzz's shelf!

Another game of the Mrs she never plays with me anymore, so I traded it off. 

Ditto as above. Megan doesn't play any of these games with me anymore and when it comes to playing games with the girls when they get older, I'd rather we play a couple of mine instead.