It’s the end of the year and time for a blog post, which is something that’s been uncommon in 2011, maybe I’ll do better next year.
This is the 2011 review of games played at the club; corresponding articles for 2008 - 2010 are linked from the years. As last year I include a comparison with the previous year. I expect to update the stats pages over the next week or so. For a rundown beyond the top 5, there is a geeklist of all the games played here. Note this won’t appear on the geek front page of the Geek.
Games Played
We played a total of 187 games this year which is an increase from 176 in 2010, spread over 73 different ones compared with 98, when play was a lot more spread. The number of games new to our tables was 30 including the number 3 game.
The total player time for the year was 776 player hours an decrease of 15% on last year’s figure of 910.
The most played games (in terms of player time) were as follows:
1. Power Grid (9 plays, 77.8 player hours)
Power Grid continues to be the most played game, this year being a clear winner with better than twice the player time of its nearest rival. There was no new board this year and most of the play was seen on the Benelux/Central Europe board with various combinations of power plants from both full decks and a few promo plants.
2. Caylus Magna Carta (6 plays, 35.5 player hours)
When it first appeared in 2005 and then the following year, Caylus was played a lot at the club, being 2006’s most played game and still holding a position of 5 in the all time list despite having not been played at all since 2006. Caylus Magna Carta seems to have supplanted it and this year has seen the most play of that game having been played a few times each in most years from 2007 (exception 2008)
3. King of Tokyo (18 plays, 31.1 player hours)
The big new game of the year having only first appeared in June. A nice little dice game that has become the club’s preferred filler game. This was the most played game in terms of number of plays.
4. London (5 plays, 31.0 player hours)
Martin Wallace’s game from Essen last year has seen steady play throughout the year, interesting all 5 games featuring myself, Steve H and Donald.
5. Battlestar Galactica (2 plays, 27.5 player hours)
We played this in January using the newly published Exodus expansion, which didn’t go down that well. On the basis of that I shall think very carefully about buying any future expansion. The other play was in November stripped back down to the base game with 2 new players.
As noted further up, the most played game in terms of games played was King of Tokyo.
What happened to last year’s top 5?
As last year the 2 survivors from the previous year are Power Grid and Battlestar Galactica, the other 3 games having fallen way down. Last year’s number 2 was World Without End (also top in terms of games played), which saw 5 plays this year and appears at number 6 on the list.
Number 4 last year was Louis XIV, which has only been played once this year and stands at 42. Number 5 was Homesteaders, which also had 1 play and is at 35.
Games that have stood the test of time
There are still 2 games, played every year since 2003 with both Vinci and Industrial Waste being played again this year although with only 1 play each.
3 other games had been played every year since 2004, of these both Power Grid and San Juan have been played again, although Kremlin did not make it to the table this year.
I now have records for 9 years (only partially for 2003) and the following have been played in at least 7 of the 9 Years.
Games played in 9 of 9 years
Vinci
Industrial Waste
Industrial Waste
Games played in 8 of 9 years
Power Grid
Amun-Re
San Juan
Acquire
Amun-Re
San Juan
Acquire
Games played in 7 of 9 years
Ra
Kremlin
Guillotine
Citadels
Kremlin
Guillotine
Citadels
Now let’s see what 2012 brings.