Best Game Playing Day Reminiscences

About a year and a half ago I posted an article called Great Days in Gaming describing my 10 best days of gaming according to the extended stats. Since then, most of those days have been superceded, so it's time to update the article.

10. August 17, 2007 - Unspeakable Words, BuyWord, Inkognito, Milleranagrams

This was a simple Critical Mass meeting. Critical Mass himself taught me Inkognito, which we won as a team after a bit of confusion; and then I played some of my favourite word games. I'm surprised it ranks so high, but it was a good evening.

9. June 1, 2007 - Hey! That's My Fish!, Set, Xe Queo!, TransAmerica, Taluva, Die Kutschfahrt zur Teufelsburg

Another Critical Mass meeting, where I played Kutschfahrt for the first time. I really like all of the games we played... and in fact I own all of them, since I bought CyberKev's copy of Kutschfahrt.

8. February 22 2006 - Evo, Pick Picknic, Cathedral, Ra, Coda, Coloretto, Pico 2

In my previous article, this was ranked my #1 day of gaming. I met CyberKev for lunch and we played Pico 2, then Mikey taught Ra and Evo at Book Realm in the evening. Since then I've downgraded my rating for Ra, as I don't really like auction games and I've played it quite enough, but I bought my own copy of Evo. I wonder where Mikey is these days?

7. December 15 2006 - Diamant, San Juan, Coda, Trias, Igel Ärgern

Another Critical Mass meeting, with Scrabblette and her friends Puerto Rico and Puerto Rica. Again, these were all my games that we played.

6. May 14 2005 - Saint Petersburg, Mystery of the Abbey, Odin's Ravens, Trias

This was such a long time ago... a box of games arrived in the mail and we tried some of them out. This was probably my first play for most of these games. I still like all of them.

5. October 19 2007 - Tsuro, Scrabble, Hey! That's My Fish!, Unspeakable Words, Midgard, Ricochet Robots

This was the last Critical Mass meeting I attended! We played 8 player Tsuro while waiting for people to arrive, then Midgard and Ricochet Robots. Then I played Scrabble against Jane, and when Hubertus finished his game he joined us to beat me twice at Hey! That's My Fish!

4. June 11 2006 - Space Crusade, Lord of the Rings: The Confrontation, Memoir '44, Travel Blokus, Gulo Gulo, Coloretto, Cartagena, Make 'n' Break

A lot of gaming happened this day! The kid and I attended BIG where I played Gulo Gulo with some spare little girls, then Coloretto with a group of the guys. Then we went to visit Pauli and played Space Crusade and my first game of Make'n'Break. I still don't own Make'n'Break but I've given two copies to other people. The game of Memoir was probably against Glynn, and Confrontation may have been against Other Kevin.

3. April 07 2007 - Hey! That's My Fish!, Villa Paletti, On the Underground, Portable Adventures: Lair of the Rat-King, TransEuropa, For Sale, Set, Give Me the Brain!, San Marco, Mystery Rummy: Al Capone and the Chicago Underworld, Heimlich & Co.

We're getting into the serious gaming days here... this was the first Critical Mass Saturday meeting. Bertie Beetle brought along Villa Paletti, I taught a heap of my games, and to close the night Critical Mass thrashed us at San Marco.

2. June 12 2006 - Lord of the Rings: The Confrontation, Settlers of Catan 10th Anniversary 3-D Special Edition Chest Set, Shocking Roulette, Poison Pot, Give Me the Brain!, Commands & Colors: Ancients, Hive

This was a very good day of gaming when Ozvortex came to visit and whopped me at C&C Ancients. The kid joined us for a game of Settlers and a few other games. Ozvortex has similar taste in games to me, so game days with him always rate highly.

1. July 07 2007 - Colosseum, Bamboleo, Feurio!, TransEuropa, Unspeakable Words, Torres, Gheos, BuyWord, Ido

The best day of gaming of all?! It was the second Critical Mass Saturday meeting. The day started abysmally as I was negotiating the sale of my house to someone who didn't want to pay a reasonable price, and for the whole morning I was too stressed to play anything except a quiet game of BuyWord against Scrabblette. As the day wore on I de-stressed and got into some good games. I liked Ido so much I traded for it that very evening... in fact Gheos irritated me enough that it was the game I sent away :-). Colosseum was not a very satisfying game, but the others were all very good. During the following week we told the prospective buyer of the house to fuck off (that may not have been how the real estate agent phrased it) and all was right with the world again.