Over the next few months, instead of going with my Three Games articles, I am going to take a look at my collection and try to discuss why certain titles survived the great purge of 2019. During this process I may take a look at some games that didn’t survive, but only as a measuring stick for what did survive. Since I am silly, like a lot of gamers, I use Ikea Kallax shelves to display the games that we own. This makes it pretty easy to break things down cube by cube, so that’s what we’re going to do, twenty-four cubes, plus a top shelf for games that don’t fit in the cubes, over the course of a few months. I hope you enjoy!

If you are a BoardGameGeek user, you can also follow along on the Geeklist I created.

Twilight Imperium

Let’s start with this one as it’s easy to get out of the way. I’ve not played it. I’ve punched it, I’ve sorted it, I’ve read the rules and I’ve even watched videos, but I’ve never played it. It’s not a game that the family will be able to sit down and play, it’s an event game, and I’ve just not found the right event it seems. Honestly, I would probably in turn sell it, and hope that should the event ever happen that someone else will have the game, but I don’t want to bother with shipping it. So it stays on the shelves. Might actually take it off the shelves and move it to the temporary shelving and see what happens. 

Zooloretto

Zooloretto is a game that I wish I had picked up back when our oldest was more into playing games. This would have fit right along with her Ticket to Ride obsession. As it is, Zooloretto came along a bit late for her, and our youngest really doesn’t enjoy it very much, but I do, and that’s why it has stuck around. Maybe I’m the animal lover in the family, I don’t know. Check out Chris’ Re-Review of the SdJ winning Zooloretto. I enjoy the mechanisms behind Coloretto and Zooloretto takes those mechanisms and turns them into a fun, strategic board game, a game that I think can stand the test of time, and stand up against family games from all generations. 5 plays since March 2018.

Vikings

Another newer acquisition that probably didn’t need to be on the shelves to keep without playing, but based on the designer pedigree alone, it got a spot. One thing that has been blossoming around here is online gaming, and low and behold, Vikings, is available to play online via Yucata. Dale has everyone covered with a review here on the OG. Vikings is a tile laying game where you are Vikings discovering islands. Each turn a player must buy an island tile from the offering and the corresponding Viking that goes with it. The island tile must be placed according to adjacency rules, but the Viking may not be placed, unless if you built on the Viking’s corresponding island. Ships will come along and threaten the islands, based on their color. Ships will nullify Vikings on the islands, unless those Vikings are protected. And all the Vikings will score based on their type at the end of the game.Vikings is a fascinating mid-weight Euro, one that I hope to get to play on the table in the near future, but in the meantime, there is always Yucata. 1 play since April 2019.

Patchwork

Greg has you covered with the basics of Patchwork here on the OG. Patchwork is one of my wife and I’s favorite games to play when we don’t know what to play. Competitive quilt building, who would have thought a game with that kind of theme would take off like it did. It’s influence is seen in newer releases now all the time, especially with that circular tile offering. It’s a wonderfully smooth mechanism to use for tile selection. Patchwork is one of those two player games where you absolutely have to be paying attention to what your opponent needs and what is available now, and in the future after you choose, you cannot play this one solitary and expect to win regularly. Timing is key in Patchwork, you have to know when to move on a piece and when to force your opponent’s hand. Beautiful piece of design from Uwe, and arguably, his best game in ages. 11 plays since 2016, too many to count via the wonderful app.