The Games We Play

The Games We Play

A repository of reports on the Wednesday night sessions of the club and anything else related to the club or boardgaming in general, which may be of interest to anyone who may be passing by.

Monday, 10 January 2011

Stats Review 2010

1 comments
This is the 2010 review of games played at the club; corresponding articles for 2008 and 2009 are linked from the years. As last year I include a comparison with the previous year. For the full details of the year's games played I've updated the stats pages and 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.

Games Played

We played a total of 176 games this year which is an increase of 150 in 2009, spread over 98 different ones, which means that the play was spread out a lot more than last year. The number of games new to our tables was 48 including 3 out of the top 5.

The total player time for the year was 910 player hours an increase of 23% on last years figure of 740

The most played games (in terms of player time) were as follows, the totals this year are generally lower than last due to the greater spread of games played:

1. Power Grid (7 plays, 65.8 player hours)

The clubs most played game returns to the top with a slight increase in player time over last year, the game was played twice in the last 3 weeks of the year with the most recent Russia/Japan expansion, which appeared a few weeks later than the corresponding expansion in more recent years. Perhaps if the expansion had been earlier we might have got another game or 2 in.

2. World Without End (11 plays, 61.2 player hours)

This game first appeared as far back as January and was number 1 in player time for much of the year only losing out to Power Grid at the very end. Despite this it was the most played game in terms of number of times played. It is a sequel to Pillars of the Earth, which had received a fair amount of play in the last couple of years, but has made way for this in 2010, despite the fact that the two are very different in play style.

3. Battlestar Galactica (3 plays, 47.0 player hours)

Last year's runaway winner drops to number 3 in 2010, suffering I think from the was the make up of the sessions, which has changed somewhat. Whereas in 2009 there were many sessions of 5 a player which is the ideal number for this game, in 2010 the numbers have more generally been 7+, which is not so ideal for the game when splitting the group.

4. Louis XIV (5 plays, 33.0 player hours)

Mike brought this along in the first week of the year, it is not a new game dating back to 2005, but it was new at Halesowen. I haven't played but it seemed to find a loyal following in the early part of the year with 4 plays by the end of March. It reappeared once late in the year.

5. Homesteaders (3 plays, 27.0 player hours)

Another one I haven't played and I don't expect I ever will because the theme (Western) is one I dislike intensely. It was first played in March and last appeared in September.

As noted further up, the most played game in terms of games played was World Without End.

What happened to last year's top 5?

The only game of 2008's top 5 still remaining there is, of course Power Grid. The number 2 game was Pillars of the Earth and that dropped to number 7. Number 3-Agricola saw just 1 play and stood at number 46, while number 4-Brass saw no play. The fifth game was Tinners' Trail which garnered 2 plays to take position 22.

There are 2 survivors of last year's top 5, Power Grid and Battlestar Galactica, the other 3 games having fallen way down. Last year's number 3 was Dominion, which was also top in terms of games played, this year it was played only once (as far back as February) and fell down to number 67. One of the reasons for this may have been that I stopped putting my copy in my bag (although I know there is at least one other copy knocking around) because the game is physically too heavy to justify lugging around, for what it provides (and that's not including any expansions).

The other 2 games were Small World (2009 - #4, 2010 #17) and Race for the Galaxy (2009 - #5, 2010 - #31), which each got 2 plays during the year.

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 this year, Vinci actually getting 3 games and placing at #6 during the year. The 2 games which missed out last year (Acquire and Amun-Re) both returned to the table this year.

The 3 other games played every year since 2004 all saw further play this year, these being San Juan, Power Grid and Kremlin.

Now let's see what 2011 brings.

December 2010 – Games Played

1 comments

01-Dec

08-Dec

15-Dec

London 120 mins.

London 120 mins.

Power Grid 120 mins.

Posn.

Player

Score

Posn.

Player

Score

Posn.

Player

Score

1

Steve H

76

1

Steve H

89

1

Dave D

16

2

Dave D

75

2

Dave D

87

2

Steve H

15

3

Mike

43

3

Andrew S

33

3

Dave F

14

Katzenjammer Blues 15 mins.

Inca Empire 150 mins.

4

Mike

13

Posn.

Player

Score

Posn.

Player

Score

5

Andrew S

11

1

Steve H

10

1

Andy

128

Guillotine 15 mins.

2

Mike

5

2

Dave F

117

Posn.

Player

Score

High Frontier 150 mins.

3

Donald

115

1

Dave F

14

Posn.

Player

Score

4

Mike

105

2

Andrew S

10

NR

Dave C

0

   

3

Dave D

8

NR

Ben C

0

   

4

Steve H

7

NR

Dave F

0

   

5

Mike

6

NR

Donald

0

   

Guillotine 15 mins.

  

     

Posn.

Player

Score

      

1

Steve H

20

      

2

Dave F

11

      

3

Andrew S

10

      

4

Dave D

9

      

5

Mike

4

22-Dec

29-Dec

7 Wonders 35 mins.

Power Grid 130 mins.

Posn.

Player

Score

Posn.

Player

Score

1

Mike

59

1

Dave D

16

2

Steve H

47

2

Steve Pe

16

3

Jonathan

46

3

Steve H

16

4

Dave F

45

4

Donald

15

5

Andy

39

5

Mike

15

7 Wonders 35 mins.

  

  

Posn.

Player

Score

   

1

Jonathan

50

   

2

Andy

47

   

3

Steve H

43

   

4

Mike

43

   

5

Dave F

41

   

Ur 60 mins.

   

Posn.

Player

Score

   

NR

Mike

0

   

NR

Jonathan

0

   

NR

Andy

0

   

NR

Steve H

0

   


 

December 2010, Meetings 5, Games 12, Average Attendance 5.8

November 2010 Games Played

0 comments

Just a summary of the games played in November.

03-Nov

10-Nov

Elfenland 70 mins.

London 100 mins.

Posn.

Player

Score

Posn.

Player

Score

1

Andy

18

1

Andy

59

2

Dave C

18

2

Claire

46

3

Ben C

18

3

Andrew S

39

4

Mike

17

4

Dave D

30

Great Fire 100 mins.

Guillotine 15 mins.

Posn.

Player

Score

Posn.

Player

Score

1

Dave D

39

1

Dave D

20

2

Dave F

38

2

Claire

19

3

Donald

35

3

Andy

13

4

Andy

34

4

Andrew S

12

Parade 25 mins.

Parade 30 mins.

Posn.

Player

Score

Posn.

Player

Score

1

Dave F

13

1

Steve H

12

2

Andrew S

21

2

Dave F

17

3

Donald

27

3

Donald

21

4

Dave D

32

4

Mike

25

Vikings 70 mins.

20th Century 100 mins.

Posn.

Player

Score

Posn.

Player

Score

1

Dave C

67

1

Dave F

114

2

Mike

63

2

Steve H

93

3

Ben C

50

3

Mike

91

  

  

4

Donald

62


 

17-Nov

24-Nov

Great Fire 70 mins.

Sid Meier's Civilization: The Board Game 150 mins.

Posn.

Player

Score

Posn.

Player

Score

1

Andy

42

NR

Dave D

0

2

Dave D

39

NR

Steve H

0

3

Dave F

38

NR

Andrew S

0

4

Claire

37

20th Century 110 mins.

San Juan 45 mins.

Posn.

Player

Score

Posn.

Player

Score

1

Dave F

115

1

Dave D

36

2

Donald

113

2

Dave F

22

3

Steve Pe

90

3

Claire

18

4

Mike

90

London 120 mins.

Der Ausreisser 45 mins.

Posn.

Player

Score

Posn.

Player

Score

1

John H

94

1

Dave F

2

2

Dave C

64

2

Steve Pe

-10

3

Ben C

54

3

Mike

-11

20th Century 100 mins.

4

Donald

-25

Posn.

Player

Score

Grand Cru 120 mins.

1

Donald

96

Posn.

Player

Score

2

Steve H

84

1

Paul

51

3

Mike

79

2

Claire

43

4

Andrew S

74

3

Andy

0

Katzenjammer Blues 30 mins.

Animal Olympics 15 mins.

Posn.

Player

Score

Posn.

Player

Score

1

Steve H

7

1

Claire

0

2

Andrew S

5

2

Paul

0

3

Mike

2

2

Andy

0

4

Donald

1

Geschenkt 15 mins.

   

Posn.

Player

Score

   

1

Andy

-12

   

2

Paul

-3

   

3

Claire

12


 

November 2010 Meetings 4, Games 17, Average Attendance 9.25