The Results Show

Success!

The Year of 100 Games was a success and will forever fill our memories with joy and warm fuzzies.  We played our 100th game just before midnight on December 31st and enjoyed the New York New Year's Eve Ball Drop (on West Coast delay) with a certain sense of satisfaction.

On the other hand, the whole blogging thing left something to be desired.  Nevertheless, the recap is finally going to print.  I would like to thank everyone who supported us and read our blog, which I think came to a total of two people.

Summary

Total Wins (including team and group wins)

1. Bob 35
2. Jennifer 33
3. Greg 31
4. Heather 24

Total "Points" (3 points for 1st-place game finishes, then 2, then 1, then 0):

1. Bob 172
2. Jennifer 169
3. Heather 153
4. Greg 152

[Note: For some games (Bible Blurt!, Birds and Animals, Boggle, Careers, Clue: Master Detective, Chutes and Ladders, Cranium Ziggety, Fluxx, Miracles and Pitfalls, Trees and Flowers), only the wins were recorded.  2nd, 3rd, and 4th place finishes were not recorded, which could have upset the point standings.  I was a little short-sighted as we had not considered adding the point system component until the very end.]

Some observations...

Team Games Played as Couples:

As a couple, Greg and Jennifer used telepathy and killer instinct to dominate their competition 7-2.

Team Games Played as Genders:

The battle of the sexes continues.  The guys-vs-gals pairs games were dead even 3 to 3.

Group Games:

As a foursome, we were match enough for Sauron in Lord of the Rings and for those nasty diseases in Pandemic, but we couldn't get our act together in Cranium Hoopla.

All that Glitters is not Gold:

Early in the century, Heather dumped her gold ornaments for silver ornaments.  She continues the theme with fewest gold medal wins but the most silver medal wins.

Going Old School:

In the 37 traditional "fixed board" board games we played, there was only a four-win spread amongst the group.

It's in the Cards:

For the 40 games involving playable cards (with or without a board or other items), the wins and points slightly favored Bob.

Dice, Dice, Baby:

Games involving dice slightly favored Jennifer in wins and she completely ran away with the overall dice points.

Give Me Your Poor, Your Tired, Your Resources:

When it came to resource-based games, Greg absolutely dominated.  He had as many wins as the rest of the group combined, winning 5 of the 10 games.

Location, Location, Location:

Bob had the most wins in worker placement and in tile placement, with Greg and Heather close behind in points on both.

The Color of Money:

When it came to straight-up amassing large quantities of cash for the victory (Acquire, etc.), Greg and Bob hogged all six wins.

Word Olympics:

In the word-creation events (Boggle, etc.) the wins were tied but Bob eeked out the most points.  In the word-guessing events (Cranium, etc.) the wins were tied and Heather barely took the most points.  However, the All-Around Gold for combined wins and points in the Word Olympics went to the school teacher, Jennifer.

Trivia:

There were only a few games that included trivia, but Heather and Bob managed to scoop up all those wins.

Celebration Time:

When it came to party games (Guestures, etc.), whether by team wins or individual wins, everybody tied in the end!

YEA!  Now back to our regular gaming...

Post written by Bob Thayne

Changes to the Line Up

In the early holiday season we managed to play some Catan games and some other fun ones.

Looking foward, we decided that squeezing in StarCraft: The Board Game was not feasible.  We plan to substitute Tikal, which was acquired during the year.  Since Birds & Animals and Trees & Flowers are both 2-in-1 card games, we decided to count them both as two games in the master list of 100.  Subsequently, we dumped Tangoes (which although it can be played as a head-to-head challenge doesn't really fit the clime of the entire ensemble) and the Märklin variant of Ticket to Ride.

The battle for first place is heating up as we near Christmas.  The band will be dispersed with respective families.  The final, and colossal, sprint to the finish will start on the 28th.

The First Big Weekend of the Fall

The weekend started with a big name in gaming, Puerto Rico. We dove right in. We have the expansion and added some of our favorite buildings to the mix, but we left the Forest tiles out since they just seem too tedious. With the Construction Huts going quickly and some diligence by those without, everyone managed to quickly obtain a pair of Quarries.

Over the course of the game Señor Bob went into Market upgrades and coffee production, but took too long to get his Coffee Roaster and failed to grab a Trading Post. Despite eventually getting into big buildings with the help of the Office, his pathetic pile of chips from shipping small amounts of corn and indigo left him in last place.

Señor Greg balanced his corn production with ever expanding sugar and tobacco production to give him a diversified shipping portfolio. There were a few key building purchases that he wished he had, as the girls managed to stay a step ahead.

Señorita Heather capitalized on shipping lots of indigo and sugar with the combination of her Aqueduct and Wharf and became the apparent chip queen. She did snatch a Trading Post, but she was lacking the high ticket production items to get her real estate into high gear.

As usual Señorita Jennifer, or should I write Doña Jennifer, brought in goods, money, buildings, and point chips by the bushel load. Her timely acquisitions of the Construction Hut, Large Market, Trading Post, and Wharf insured a healthy return every round on her way to victory.

Puerto Rico was followed by two smaller games, Quicksand and Quiddler, both of which Greg deftly won without breaking a sweat.

Race for the Galaxy was opening game on Day 2. Jennifer struggled getting card combinations and production planets going. Heather went for war and built up her military might to settle some high-point planets. Bob kept creating developments that gave him development bonuses and development discounts, but he ran out of time to sufficiently diversify. Greg had the blend going with a portfolio of production, trade, point planets, and chips for the big win.

In Rail Baron everyone wisely started buying some nice rail lines, but Bob had the trajectory on this one. Besides making an early tactical grab in the northeast, Bob managed to get a nice monopoly going in the north central and northwest regions. His rolls throughout the game gave him short to medium distance trips primarily on his own lines or on public lines, which allowed him to buy early and often.

To keep the pace going for the weekend, we played a single, standard RoboRally board with four flags. The flags were laid out in a moderately-spaced crossing pattern to encourage "interaction". The crossing pattern had some effect throughout the game, but "interaction" ensued before reaching the first marker. In the mad dash for the first flag, Heather decided to get the party started by judiciously shoving her husband's robot into a pit. He came back with a chip on his shoulder (and two on his card) and got into a few nice firefights that included tampering with Jennifer's programming cards. Jennifer inflicted her own levels of damage on the field, and at one point Heather took a dive in a pit. Greg kept skating along, and although everyone eventually abandoned their own endeavors to attempt to snipe or bludgeon him (or snipe or bludgeon someone who was attempting to snipe or bludgeon him), he had easy sailing to the finish.

In Rook Jennifer out-sparkled everyone with a perfect score of 1000.

Greg finished the gaming by claiming his fifth win of the weekend with a win in Rummikub

This post by Bob.

Update

Heather and Bob adopted a baby girl!!!  Hooray!!!  She's the cutest thing ever!  Also, Bob is now gainfully employed as a Design Project Manager at a thriving engineering and surveying firm.  Incidentally, the gaming has been slow and the blogging has been non-existent.  We'll have some more to add at some point, but for now, I'll just update that we've played through Power Grid, and we're wondering how we're going to squeeze in the rest of them by the end of the year!

Greg's post (by proxy) - Going Old School

Mahjong  What crazy, clacky fun.  Heather dominates!

Mancala  To the Jennifer go the spoils, but Greg played well too.

Team Jennifer

All three games for this particular weekend were played as team games, either two-on-two or everyone versus the board.

Jennifer played Lord of the Rings for the first time and did splendidly.  Since it was a first time for her and since it had been several years for the rest of us, we started with the easy version and put Sauron at spot 15 on the corruption line.  We struggled at first with some harsh going in the mines.  Then things evened out at Helm's Deep and in Shelob's Lair, and we picked up some momentum to destroy the ring with 65 points.  Jennifer picked up her first Lord of the Rings victory unscathed and she picked up a win with the rest of the group.

The next game was a GK Rhinos favorite, Lost Cities.  We play the four-person team variant that requires some extra cards from a second deck.  We traditional play this as guys versus girls.  In short, during the first hand the guys couldn't get much; for the second hand they loaded on some good stuff; and for the third hand the girls said ba-bye and stomped their way to a big finish.  Jennifer picked up her second team win of the weekend with Heather as her partner.

The final game of the weeknd was Magic: The Gathering, which was another new one for Jennifer.  Did that matter?  No.  This time it was family versus family.  We only used one deck per family since we didn't have enough time to teach Jennifer to handle her own deck for a three-game match.  Greg and Jennifer used one of Greg's Time Spiral decks.  Bob and Heather used a custom Red and White deck.  Greg and Jennifer played their hands beautifully and Bob and Heather dug and dug and dug for land cards, never seeming to find enough.  Jennifer picked up her third team victory of the weekend, this time with her hubby.

Well done, Jennifer!

Written by Bob

Jennifer's post (by proxy)

The Great Dalmuti Staying on top is the goal.  Bob clawed his way up.

Guesstures The men made a valiant effort, but they were schooled by the women.

Guillotine  Just when we all thought we were getting a head (ha, ha), Greg won by a nose.

Hearts  It was very sad for those who lost at hearts, but Heather had the sweetest heart of the night.

Hit the Deck Uno meets Slap Jack.  It didn't go over too well.  Still, Bob hit it big.

Le Havre A wonderful, meaty game.  I'm on a boat.  But Greg won.