It’s a wonderful time of year! Not only is it a time where family and friends get together, but it’s also so cold outside that it’s a lot easier for us gamers to get them to sit around the table and play games!
I’ll never forget when Settlers of Catan first entered our home. My older brother brought it for the holidays, none of us were really gamers at that point. We played it almost every day, and sometimes multiple times a day! Each family had their own copy within a month after that!
This ‘Winter Break’ is a perfect time to spend with family, friends, loved ones, and our year long companion – games. We are, after all, a family here at Boardgaming.com, so let’s spend this time together in celebration of a new tradition: ‘The 12 Days of Gaming‘! In this extended “What are you playing this weekend?” let us know how you are celebrating The Twelve and what Sugar Plum Meeples are dancing on your table tops all holiday long.
Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Boxing Day, Pancha Ganapati, Yule, Newtonmas, Festivus, Decemberween, Hogswatch, The Feast of Alvis or the Winter Veil…we all sit at the table as one. Let’s unwrap our gifts together and share the new acquisitions that will grace our gaming shelves in the year to come.
Happy Holidays and a most unboxable New Year!
—Boardgaming.com
What games are you most excited about playing over the holidays? What games will you use to introduce your friends and family to the hobby? What games will you play with your fellow gamer enthusiasts?
The harvest of games begins anew, even if it is a touch frosty. So far have received this week:
– The Agents (from the second Kickstarter, as I didn’t pick it up the first time)
– Sentinels of the Multiverse: Wrath of the Cosmos
– Scoville
Really looking forward to breaking out one or more of those this weekend, along with the multitude of games I haven’t had a chance to crack open since they arrived in November/December.
WRATH OF THE COSMOS!!!!!!!!!
Nice Christmas period, and happy new year for everybody!!
Lots of playing as i got to have 15 days free of work. Family gaming, game geek group gaming, and for the new year celebration we were 4 days at an outdoors house with more playing (some driking and lots of eating also) boardgames and other ones.
The list of games i got to play:
Machi Koro (i would say this one was our most played), Lords of Waterdeep, Tzolkin, Catan (with the expansions rivers and barbarians all together) Libertalia, Run Fight or Die, Village, Hannabi, Ticket to ride, 10 Negritos (Spanish publisher game based in the Agatha Christie novel) Time’s up, Puerto Rico
Then i received as gifts:
Zombie 15′
City of Iron
Both of them i hope i will be able to have a first play in the next weekend.
And i gave as gifts:
Clash of Cultures
Lewis & Clark
Both of them to my sister and her husband, second one cause they are since some time living in the EEUU so they will get some history of the country while gaming.
Dobble
This one to my girlfriend to play with her 11 years son (but i have to day that this is quite fun also to play in a group of adults)
Some funny holiday gaming stories:
King of Tokyo was indeed King this year. The day before Christmas Eve, we had a get together with some not really gamey friends. They asked us to bring over one of our ‘games’ to try something new over the standard Cranium or Cards Against. We decided on King of Tokyo as it is easy to learn and quick enough that if the uninitiated find it painful it can be over.
First Game: Was a bit clunky but started to jive enough by the end it got the ol ‘Okay, we get it now – let’s give it another go’
Second Game: People were getting a bit more aggressive.
Third Game: We brought in the expansions.
Fourth Game: People were standing up around the table chucking dice and screaming like it was a BGdot Echelon friendly ‘Roosters Fighting in a Pit for Bloodsport’ affair.
Seventh Game??? (I lost track) I nabbed Nova Breath in the second turn and wiped the table in three minutes. I wanted to smear French Onion dip on my face like war paint.
I think we played like 10 table banging games. Definitely a sign of a success. People were asking where to get it. Barnes and Nobles? Oh yes! Pandakai Bless us, everyone.
The Boy got Lords of Waterdeep for Christmas. I immediately cocked my head and made the ‘Divorce?’ face. I sidle away from the Euro. I do not gleam the Cube. I shun it. I have dabbled with Euphoria but I did not leave with feelings of it. He shot me up with the ‘Trust Me’ smile. Ugh. So I looked it over, gave it the sort, read the rules and saw more ‘Ho & Hum’ than “Dungeons & Dragons’ in it. We took it to our Day after Christmas Gaming Group Gift Swap and Game Day. They wanted to play. It seemed easy enough. So I’m holding agents in my shaking phobic hands and throwing cubes into my ‘tavern’. Then somebody flies around the board with a 25 point quest. Then someone else. Then I do. Then everyone is pretty much neck and neck and I’m buying ‘rogues’ like they are going out in style. Then we tabulate the end game ‘Lord’ points and have a scream and play again. The next day we are at the FLGS and he’s buying me Skullport because I want it. The same thing happened with Thunderstone a few years back. He gifted it. I made a face. We wound up playing 5 games straight under the tree. Next day I’m at the FLGS looking for expansions in cardboard junkie withdrawal. 😛
I do love Thunderstone. I don’t think I’ll feel the same about Waterdeep and it certainly won’t cause me to scream ‘Power me up some Grids’ in my sleep as Sugar Plum Euros dance in my head. But -grrrrrrrrr- I had fun! Quite a bit! He’s often right and never smug. When he gets his well deserved *punch hug* well – I’ll just blame it on all that corruption he made me want to have.
It seems the BGdot family had some very nice holiday times. Happy Holidays and a Glorious New Year all!
In the acquisition of cardboard Christmas loot department:
“Santa” usually puts the latest Flying Frog web expansions in my stocking since The Frog conveniently releases them for the holidays – this year there were 3 so: Dark Gothic: Forgotten Island, Last Night: Airstrike, and Conquest of Planet Earth:Hora Goth were tucked in there. YAY! And there was a crazy promo card for Sentinels of the Multiverse: Argent Adept I had no idea existed. Santa is a wise web searcher.
“Santa Me” likes to get the latest Warehouse 23 annual Munchkin promo pack and a foil and leave them at the milk and cookies – so that happened. 🙂 The Boy got Munchkin Loot Letter, some Dicemaster boosters, and Ascension promos in his stocking.
My Game Gifts:
Student Bodies – the no weapon Zombie Game from the people who put out Cutthroat Caverns (which I really love) – looks fun, backstabby good times.
Lords of Waterdeep (from The Boy – What the…? Do you even know me? But more on that later)
For the Crown (Deckbuilding meets chess? Yes please!)
The Boy’s Gifts:
Gears of War
Tricked-out Hero
The new Car Wars little box set
His yet-to-come fancy Doomtown:Reloaded
The Nieces Gifts:
Their own copy of What the Food???
Some new Krosmaster chibis and finally the foil cards for us from the ‘Great Foil Card Debacle of ‘014’
Fairy Mischief
Mice and Mystics: Heart of Glorm
In a Gift of the Magi moment – I didn’t order Imperial Assault for Herr Master of the Dungeon Crawl because I didn’t think it would release on time. Of course, it did. Grrrr. So then I quickly ordered it. But it didn’t come in time. So apologies to anyone whose ears were burning as they rolled around under the tree with the tabletop ‘precious’ Imperial Assault. It arrived Christmas weekend and all is right with the world and The Force is back to undisturbed status quo in our household.
Recently purchased Imperial Assault. Also picked up Garden Dice. I guess those two are on opposite ends of the spectrum. I’m okay with that 🙂
Sentinels of the Multiverse: Wrath of the Cosmos arrived on Saturday! Sky-Scraper was laying the smack down all weekend.
Shadows of Brimstone all the way
DC Comics Deck-Building Game, Splendor (many times), Star Wars X-Wing Miniatures, Star Trek Attack Wing, The Battle of Five Armies, Star Wars: Empire vs. Rebellion, Small World, The Settlers of the Stone Age
Ended the holiday vacation with an Alaska themed game night: Pay Dirt followed by Fleet. Wanted to get a game of Alien Frontiers in but ran out of time.
Ca$h & gun$, doomtown, dead panic, and cheaty mages. Its been an awesome few weeks.
Spent a week with the family, my girlfriend and my sister’s boyfriend and we got in some Through the Ages, Arkham Horror, Mice & Mystics, Munchkin, Masters Gallery, and Musketeers.
I spent the past week painting all of my Imperial Assault miniatures(including a few 12 hour days!). I posted a few pictures on my account on the other BG site.
Besides that, I played a few games on BGA (Race for the Galaxy, Tokaido, Through the Ages).
I am still playing Fallen, my new Kickstarter game. I really like it and it is pretty easy to learn and play and has great story telling. It is like a fantasy book turned into a game!
Trying to get through the Christmas backlog, a good problem to have. Want to get Ancient Terrible Things played several times as well as Takenoko and revisit some Race for the Galaxy.
I managed to play a whole bunch of card games over the holidays: Skull & Roses, 6-player Epic Spell Wars, Machi Koro and Samurai: The Card Game. I’m hoping to play some newly acquired board games, including Zombie 15′ and Shadows Over Camelot!
Hoping to play Arkham Horror this weekend. Maybe through in some DungeonQuest or possible some good old gaming with Star Trek: Starship Tactical Combat Simulator from the mid 80’s.
My brother got me King of Tokyo and all of its expansions. He is not a board gamer, so it was awesome for me to be able to share something with him that made him ask to continue playing for 2-3 hours. I hope it means that I can play more things with him as I get more knowledgeable.
So now that the Holidays are over and the family recovered, I can catch up on some boardgaming! We’ve squeezed in Orcs Orcs Orcs and Skullckles the last couple of nights, and I’ll be Skullckle-ing (is that right?) again tonight.
Over the weekend we’ll be playing from a selection of recent arrivals. From Kickstarter, I received AquaSphere (nothing more exciting than a new Feld game) and More Castles! (Castle Dice expansion) this week, as well as the new Flash Point expansion Honor & Duty. And from Asmodee I received Deus and Witness. All told, we’ll be making up for a serious gaming deficiency over the holidays this weekend!
All my friends are busy, but I got a new iPad Air, so I downloaded Catan to play all by my lonesome ;_; LOL it’s fun though 😀