Tag: twilight struggle

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?


My favorite overlooked games that work for 2 players

My favorite overlooked games that work for 2 players

February always sneaks up on me. Often I haven’t quite recovered from the holiday pandemonium, and, in a blink of an eye, January is over and it’s February — which is littered in ALL THINGS PINK. Don’t get me wrong — I love romance, love and all that wonderful stuff, just not when it’s forced down your throat at every single corner of the world. Plus, aren’t we supposed supposed to show our love and appreciation year-round anyway?

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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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Recap of International Tabletop Day

Recap of International Tabletop Day

I got to play Lords of Waterdeep for the first time.
I got to play Lords of Waterdeep for the first time. Here are some of the quests you can collect.

Last Saturday was International Tabletop Day. All my meetup groups around the Valley were hosting their own special event. I ended up going to a friend’s event at his home and then moved over to my usual biweekly gaming group event. It was nice to see friends who don’t usually make it to all the events, so there was some time spent catching up on everybody’s lives.

The first game I played was Lords of Waterdeep. Strangely enough, I’ve never had a chance to play it before. I love the heavy crunchy games, and this game has never been suggested during my usual meetups. It’s a great game though that’s on the short side that introduces the concept of worker placement for new board gamers. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it.

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Twilight Struggle: No. 1 for a reason

Twilight Struggle: No. 1 for a reason

I haven’t been this excited to talk about a particular game in a while. Granted, I’m always excited to talk about board games, but this one in particular, I’m uber excited to share. Which game is it? Twilight Struggle.

Twilight Struggle is ranked No. 1 for board games, war games and strategy games on boardgamegeek.com. That’s quite impressive. I’ve had this game for about a year and a half but have never played it until two weekends ago. And then I played it a second and third time in the next few days.

Twilight Struggle is a 2-player game that plays about 180  minutes. The mechanics seem daunting at first glance, but the main reason I just played it is because I’ve never wanted to bring a 2-player game to a gaming event. It seems very anti-social. So when a friend of mine who enjoys heavier board games had a few hours to sit with me to learn and play, I immediately busted it out.

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