Tag: agricola

First 5 hobby games in my collection

First 5 hobby games in my collection

It’s officially been five years since my first blog post. I wrote about last year’s anniversary, and with every passing year, I like to take a look back down Memory Lane. 

As I sit at my dining table plugging away on my laptop, my back toward my Kallax shelves full of board games, I can’t help to think of the first games to enter my collection, the catalyst to the inevitable transformation of my dining room area to board gaming central — mini-studio lights and all.

The first five games in my collection were Catan, Ticket to Ride, Agricola, Arkham Horror and Twilight Struggle. Catan, TTR and Twilight Struggle were all gifts, and Arkham and Agricola I purchased after a deep dive into the BGG rankings. 

The first five hobby games that started it all for me.

A few months ago, after a game of Agricola, nostalgia spurred me to share on Twitter these five games and asked followers which five hobby games first entered in their collections. 

Well, the Twitterverse did not disappoint. 

I received over 850 board game submissions, and I thought it’d be fun to compile that information and see which games were most often mentioned. A good majority of my Twitter followers seemingly entered the hobby around the same time I did, based on their responses.

For clarity’s sake, I lumped versions/editions/expansions into the base game of the same name. For example, I grouped all of The Settlers of Catans and Catan Seafarers all under Catan.  The top 12 results are below in a nifty data visualization I created. (You can hover over each bar to get more information.)

And here are the top 25 games mentioned, broken down by years. There appears to be a dark period there, based on the responses, between 1985-1995. (I’m pretty sure a lot of people were playing all those Milton Bradley games, such as Shogun). 

Then in 1995, Catan debuted and helped usher in the Golden Age of board gaming. And as they say, the rest is history. 

I still have a fondness for my first five games (which are all still present in my collection), but, in all honesty, I’d probably only play four of them if asked right this minute. I’ll let you guess which one wouldn’t make the cut. 

What were the first five hobby games in your collection, and which of them do you still own?


The second-annual Friendship Con

The second-annual Friendship Con

My friends and I decided to host a second-annual Friendship Con last week, and I had so much fun. It was nice seeing friends who moved away from Phoenix and those friends I haven’t seen since last year’s event.

We played a lot of games, though sadly we didn’t get through all the games on our uber ambitious list. There were a couple sleepless nights for me (I am so not a morning person, and, not gonna lie, it was rough getting somewhere by 8:30 a.m.), but in the end, I got some good gaming in with fun folks!

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My top 9 board games

My top 9 board games

A few days ago @theboardgeek asked on Instagram what #mytop9boardgames were.
Here’s the photo I posted on Instagram for the #mytop9boardgames thread.

The user @theboardgeek started this hashtag #mytop9boardgames a few days ago on Instagram, and I decided to jump on it and create my own photo grid. I hadn’t actually thought to write down my list in a while. There are just so many games out there! And of course, as you get deeper into the hobby, your tastes and preferences change. If you check out the list, I totally love heavy, crunchy games.

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Agricola: All Creatures Big and Small

Agricola: All Creatures Big and Small

Many board games list a minimum 2 players for the game, but in reality, you often a need a third or fourth person for the game to have some depth and playability. That isn’t the case for Agricola: All Creatures Big and Small.  This game, designed by board-game genius Uwe Rosenberg, is a spin-off of the classic game Agricola and is created specifically for two players.

Game play lasts about 30 minutes, with a total of 8 rounds. The box itself is compact and the components are solid. You receive wooden bits for your farm, and you guys already saw the animeeples that I use for the original Agricola game in my previous post.

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Agricola: Farming, feeding and breeding

Agricola: Farming, feeding and breeding

One of the oldest games I own is Agricola. It’s a classic worker-placement strategy game by one of my favorite designers Uwe Rosenberg, who I mentioned in my post about Le Havre. I love Agricola so much that I played it twice this past weekend.

Each player starts with a farmer and a spouse, meaning you can take two turns per round. As you grow your family, each new member can take a turn as well. The game is played out over 14 Rounds occurring in 6 Stages, with a Harvest at the end of Rounds 4, 7, 9, 11, 13, and 14. During Harvest, your crops come off the field, you feed your workers, and your animals breed.

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