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Bobby Warren
United States
Glendale
Arizona
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Wow, only one new game and one new expansion, this month and the only expansions I played were for Thunderstone and Power Grid.
I played 17 different games a total of 39 times with the one new game and I recorded 25 playings of four expansions and one of those was new to me. I played six of the games and two of the expansions in February.
7 Wonders
Times Played: 9
Last Month Played: 2/11
A bunch of games using the only copy in our group and a few with my copy which I bought the last week of the month. Michael has become a shark and wins all the time, no matter what strategy he plays. I thought I would never win but kept playing because it is a fun filler game.
The last Saturday of the month saw the game played twice, with me only playing once. Christa beat Greg and Michael in the first one and Nico won the second against Christa, Michael, and me. I can't believe Michael has a losing streak! The heavens must be falling!
On the last day of the month, I taught Mike how to play using the advanced two-player rules and really liked them. It works surprisingly well with two. I lost to both Mike and the dummy. After that, we taught Hilary how to play and she won. Finally, the last game of the month was mine, all mine! I finally won!
Arkham Horror
Times Played: 1
Last Month Played: 1/11
Roland Banks (the Fed), Patrice Hathaway (the Violinist), and Hank Samson (the Farmhand) fought the minions of Ithaqua and stopped them in their tracks by sealing the breaches in reality in the fine hamlet of Arkham.
Things were looking really bleak with many monsters roaming the streets when many of them suddenly disappeared, which gave the heroes the time and freedom of movement needed to finish their noble work.
Asteroyds
Times Played: 1
Last Month Played: 2/11
Mike wanted to teach Hilary, so I took it to their house. She caught on to the movement and did much better than Mike, who kept flying into things. I was sneaky and started on another part of the board and ended up with the win.
The game is much more fun with more asteroids and obstacles on the board.
Dragonheart
Times Played: 2
Last Month Played: 11/10
It's still light and the winner is more likely than not going to be determined by who drew the right cards at the right time.
Over time, if a player learned the cards available in the decks, then they would have a better idea of when might be a good time to play a specific card, but they would still have the card. It's a decent filler and a pleasant way to pass time, but there is not a whole lot of game here. I'll still play it most any time when we're looking for a filler to kill some time.
Dungeonquest
Times Played: 2
Last Month Played: 9/10
Mike and I played this a couple of times. He won both of them.
We used the original combat system (now optional and available on the FFG website) which is just cleaner and quicker.
Fresco
Times Played: 1
Last Month Played: 1/11
This was a four-player game using all the expansions included with the game, but without any of the new expansions. Christa hadn't played in a while and needed a refresher, so leaving out the new expansions seemed best. Hopefully, we'll be able to play with them soon.
My usual thing it to make a run at purple early on because tiles that require it are worth more points than the other mixed colors, then diversify as needed. I had done this several times when Kevin and/or Anne had played before and I suspected they had an idea this is what I did. So I decided to focus on the other two mixed colors. A couple of turns in, I reminded Christa about the Request Tiles mixed colors when Kevin mentioned that going for purple is how I normally win. Hah!
I only mixed purple paint to get magenta during the game, except once when I claimed a tile with purple. I still ended the game in the lead, though I was sure Kevin was going to catch me in the end. I scored about 20 more points than he did and Christa was five points behind him, and Anne five behind her.
Gosu
Times Played: 1
Last Month Played: 11/10
Nico and I were waiting for others to arrive, so we played this since neither of us had played in a while. It was the first time either of us used the drafting rules and we both liked them.
London
Times Played: 2
Last Month Played: 2/11
Mike was frustrated by our second game. I got the Wren card on the first draw and had both Coffee Houses and he started feeling early on that he was not getting cards that would help him out. I was able to run my city several times to greatly reduce the number of poverty I had using the Street Lights and other cards and cruised to a fairly easy win.
We also forgot that the cards in hand meant poverty points at the end of the game, not that it would have mattered at that point. It's hard to believe the player aide sheet does not have the scoring summary on it.
I also taught the game to Anne and Kevin. I think I did a pretty good job of letting them know that cash was scarce at the end of the game and while Kevin ran into some mid-game cash flow issues, he was able to work through them and have enough to pay off his loan at the end of the game.
The game has a learning curve because you need to learn the flow of the cards and have an idea of what is available. The good thing is that you can still be competitive and enjoy the game while learning what is available.
Mr. Jack Pocket
Times Played: 1
Last Month Played: 10/10
Christa was the insidious killer and I was all that is right with society trying to bring her to justice. She's a sneaky one, but I managed to pull out victory, not realizing it until she looked at me with a greater disdain than normal with a high level of disgust. In other words, I'm not all that clever -- just lucky. 
Nightfall
Times Played: 7
Last Month Played: 2/11
First up was a three-player game which had me teaching it to Ben and Erin. We randomly chose sets of starting cards from the recommended ones in the rules. In my personal archives I had Death Grip & Ivan Radinsky, I believe Erin had Flank Attack & Franz Orlok, and Ben had Blood Rage & Lilith Lawrence.
I was able to play a four-player game and I also played some two-player games with Mike* and Nico enjoyed them, though it is not as fun with two because one mistake can cause someone to lose the game. I won one of the games against Nico 16-0 because I ended up with no Wounds and he had the rest of the non-exiled wounds in his deck. I like it best with three and it is a little slow with four, though that could just be the learning curve we are experiencing at this point.
The game feels incomplete with a copious amount of room for expansion, and I will keep with it for an expansion or two because I have been enjoying puzzling out how to play. One potential drawback I see is that it might be hard for new players to play experienced players and feel like they are being competitive. Time will tell.
*Mike and another friend had played a couple of games a few days before and they made a different mistake than the group I played with last month made. Mike missed the rule where you filled the common archive up to eight cards, so they were playing with only two cards in the common archive which had to be painful.
Power Grid
Times Played: 1
Last Month Played: 1/11
Expansions Played: Power Grid: Benelux/Central Europe.
Six players on the Central Europe map.
Rat Hot
Times Played: 1
Last Month Played: 4/10
Mike and I played this to end a night and it wasn't that competitive. I was able to grab an early lead and the tile draws really favored me for the entire game.
One of the great things about this filler is it is over fairly quickly, so bad tile draws aren't a killer. Yet most games are decided by the person who sees the matches better than the other player, and it has a nice puzzle feel.
Rattus
Times Played: 1
Last Month Played: 2/11
The crew had left for the day, leaving Christa and I at the shop. I suggested we play this because it does work as a two-player game. She hadn't played in a while, and only once or twice when she did play, so I decided to just use the original characters.
The game ended when I got the last of my population markers on the board. We ran through the endgame and Christa ended up beating me because she had the characters to move her people around and the rats into regions occupied by mine.
Summoner Wars
Times Played: 1
Last Month Played: New to Me
It's fun combat game that might have been better served by smaller cards or large counters. The paper board is cheap and pathetic, but there is a deluxe set coming out later this year.
I suspect Mike and I will be playing this on occasion.
Thunderstone
Times Played: 8
Last Month Played: 2/11
Expansions Played: Wrath of the Elements, Doomgate Legion, and Dragonspire.
Dragonspire was released and Mike picked his up before I went to his place to play two-player games. We sleeved his cards and gave it a whirl using a random set of cards from the iTstone program on my iPhone.
With two players, the Phalanx first-level character is too plentiful and there seems to be little reason to buy anything but it because he is just so powerful when you combine them. I think I will avoid playing set-ups using this character with two-players.
We later played a set-up I came up with which made Militia useful and even powerful at times. I then tweaked it just a little bit because the Bandit monster class almost requires that you can draw additional cards in the Dungeon.
I also played at the store. Nico had his set and we played a four-player game using another set-up I created. It was designed around spell slingers and had a couple of things I will avoid in the future. Having both the Harruli and the Cabal was not a great idea because their special abilities are very close to each other. I also had two attack spells that cost five and probably should have had something with a greater cost in place of one of them. I redesigned the set-up and will try it again.
Michael and I played a couple of two-player games. In one of them we used the new Figurine Treasures. To try to prevent huge swings of luck, a player could only gain one treasure when they went into the Dungeon. The player would get the first treasure which came up when refilling the Dungeon. If a second treasure appeared, we attached it to the next monster that came up and the player that defeated the monster would claim that treasure. It worked really well and we both liked the bonuses these treasures gave.
Finally, I promised to teach the game to Grant who made it down on Saturday and he, Nico, and I played a game with another iTstone set-up. We made a couple of tweaks to the available cards and the game went okay, though it would have been nice to have some spells available with the Harruli and Bluefire Staff both being options.
Ticket to Ride
Times Played: 1
Last Month Played: 4/10
We played a five-player game. I had tickets connected Miami and Dallas to the northeast and none of the larger tickets. Jeff obviously chose tickets which ran along the Mississippi while the others were building out the west to the east. Amazingly, no one was building down the west coast.
I was progressing very slowly and was also working on collecting the cards which might let me rush across the southwest to Los Angeles in case I later drew a ticket which had me going that way. This playing of the game would have made Alan Moon proud because everyone was drawing tickets.
My first ticket draw had me needing to connect only to Montreal from Boston and from Charleston to Atlanta for another 20-plus points. I later drew more tickets, but was blocked out of everywhere but Denver, which would take a very roundabout route to get to. I ran out of time before the game ended, but I still ended with the longest route because I branched less than the others. I won the game by about 15 points. We had only three tickets left in the pile at the end of the game.
Witch of Salem
Times Played: 2
Last Month Played: 1/11
We started off by sealing two locations in the first couple of turns, and then the bad things started happening. A shadow appeared over Arkham and the Necron marker advanced two spaces every turn and we were unable to defeat the shadow or reveal all the Great Old Ones around R'lyeh in the allotted time.
The second time I played was with four players and it was just way too easy. Everything fell into place and we walked through the game and we won easily. Unfortunately, it didn't make a good impression on the others, so it likely won't get pulled out during the days on Saturdays.
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