What a difference a year makes. Last year I peaked at 118 unplayed games in my collection and went into the holiday season with over 35 games remaining to be played.

While I have been more disciplined this year about acquiring games and incurring burndown debt, the task of finishing the year with no unplayed games is still daunting. I'm keeping all of the games remaining to be played on the closet shelf in the game room.

Some comments on each game:

• Mammoth Hunters - picked this up in a math trade but it still lingers around. Maybe the trade was a mistake, but I think this is a game Julie may like.
• Caylus Magna Carta - a recent purchase, this is sure to get played in the next few weeks. I'm hosting game night on Tuesday so I'll likely push for this one.
• 1870 - little to no chance of this getting played. I purchased it at steep discount and expect to play at some point, but there are other 18xx games ahead in line to be played.
• Reef Encounter - also picked this up in a math trade. I technically played this online once but had no clue what I was doing.
• La Citta - also picked this up in a math trade, and played online once with no clue. Sense a theme here?
• Cash n Guns - I won this on a BoardGameNews contest. These guys were in the booth next to us at Essen 2005 but I never got a chance to play this. Matthew loves it so it will get played.
• Niagara - Maybe I'll bring this to the games class on an open gaming day.
• Winds of Plunder - GMT P500 pre-order that I doubt will get played this year. I probably should have pre-ordered Conquest of Paradise instead.
• Brass - This should get played this coming Sunday - very excited to try it.
• Elasund - Also picked this up at a discount but haven't managed to give it a go yet.
• Friedrich - I've always loved the idea of how the cards make this game click so I picked it up in a math trade. Maybe I'll get this played at the Salishan gaming retreat coming up in December.
• Dune - This is a classic I've heard so much about but have never played. Maybe I can sneak into a game at BGG.CON as I know it was played there 2 years ago.
• 1960: The Making of the President - This will certainly get played before the end of the year, especially considering how much Jacob likes this era.
• Blood Feud in New York - Matthew and Jacob are interested in trying out this mobster game so we should find a way to play it on a Saturday or Sunday before too long.
• Hannibal: Rome vs. Carthage - I was thinking this would be an unlikely game to play, but Jacob just started a Roman history unit at school and they are studying the Punic wars as part of it, so that may very well be the hook I need.

Matthew's team won a hard-fought contest 16-0 on Saturday against a team that beat them in the regular season to earn a spot in the championship. Unfortunately, Jacob's team lost a nailbiter 7-6 on a final minute score by the opposing team, so his season ends one game short of the championship. Matthew scored both touchdowns in his team's win, so here are the highlights.

Two weeks from now I'll be at BGG.CON. Are you going? If so, leave a comment so we can meetup there. I'm really looking forward to this. Why?

• I'm going as a gamer, not a vendor
• I'm rooming with Greg Schloesser, so there should be some great conversation. I hope he doesn't snore much.
• I missed Essen, so this will be a good chance to play new releases.
• I'll get to see oooold friends like Jim Ginn and Tim Isaakson.
• Other than GameStorm last spring, this is the only con I'll attend this year.

Jacob invited a friend over for some Magic: the Gathering action. After playing another prototype with Carey I joined in for some fun theme-deck action. I then forced To Court the King on the both of them with the claim "It's just like Magic, but with dice. And there's nothing to collect."

That was good enough for them (like I gave them a choice) and we got through most of a game before it was time to check out the candy loot from Matthew as he returned from begging. There seems to be some depth to the game as the choices on how and when to use the characters are non-obvious. Still, it seems very tactical which will be fine by me if we can play it consistently in 30 minutes. Jacob and Bigfoot seemed to both like it.

Yes, I said last regular season game - we made the playoffs! After an 0-3 start, we won the next 5 games and qualified for the 4th and last playoff spot. This leads to a rematch against the team that beat us 8-0 in our 3rd game. The kids have really pulled together and it is exciting to extend the season for at least one more week.

Here are some highlights from the last game against Centennial, a brutal contest that we won 8-0 (a safety plus a TD). This was a defensive struggle that we thought would end 2-0. Matthew managed to break away on an inside trap play and score a touchdown. In the highlights you'll see Matthew (#63) at middle linebacker on defense and fullback on offense.

Ken and I got together about 2 weeks ago to play Twilight Struggle. This currently ranks as my favorite-game-that-I-rarely-get-to-play. Ken was concerned about the rumors he's heard that the game is broken in some way, but I assured him that it is just a bit imbalanced towards to Soviets. I offered to play the USA to perhaps balance out experience vs inherent imbalance and it seemed to work out just fine.

I was fortunate to draw the European and Middle East scoring cards and control the timing in the early war, which helped mitigate losses for me and keep me in the positive VP territory for the early war and into the middle war. I worked very hard to keep the Soviets out of Central America by holding the Castro card for most of the early game but he made inroads with (I think) de-colonization anyway. Ken learned quickly about scoring and momentum and adjusted in real time quite nicely, balancing out the VPs mid-way through the middle war and setting up a potentially exciting finish.

Unfortunately it just got too late for both of us (around 11pm or so - we didn't start until after 8pm) so we called it a night. We both look forward to a re-match. I also can't wait to try out the new 1960: The Making of the President...

With a rare free Sunday, the boys and I took the dive into boardgaming again and played Age of Empires III. KC and I did a joint order at Funagain recently and I finally met up with him for lunch on Friday to pick up my games. This was one of them, along with Caylus Magna Carta and To Court the King.

This game ranks pretty low on the complexity scale (compared to other big box games) and pretty high on the fun scale, though it did feel quite a bit like Caylus, Pillars of the Earth, and other games in this genre. The boys are inexperienced enough that they just enjoyed the game. We played this learning game in just over 2 hours, and I won by a healthy margin. The boys will learn to pay more attention to the scoring rounds and getting colonists on the board next time!

Now it will be interesting to try Caylus Magna Carta to see if one scratches the itch better than the other. I love Caylus but it plays too long for most sessions. AoE seems to fit in the 2 hour category just fine, and Magna Carta should as well.

Class started today without a hitch. I opted for Walk the Dogs to keep the first day simple and play something known by about half the class (returning from last year). Next week I think we'll try Tsuro.

Side note - this picture was taken with the iPhone and emailed directly to my Flickr stream - pretty sweet functionality.

Two consecutive Fridays, two consecutive train gaming sessions. How different they can be!

Last Friday I hosted an evening of 18XX gaming, a rare pleasure these days and as satisfying as always. We had enough people to split into two separate games - 18AL and 18Scan. Couldn't talk Jacob into playing this time - he covets his free weekend evenings which is the only time he gets to play video or console games.

Eric has become our 18XX guru in terms of collecting and teaching the games. He led the 18AL game while Matt, George and I struggled through the rules for 18Scan. His version of 18AL is like mine - mostly hand-made but with nice components. Still, it underscores how amazing the productions from John Tamplin at Deep Thought Games are - I hope he continues to do his craftwork.

My impression of 18Scan is that is short, sweet, but has a few more tricky rules than the other short games I've played. I stayed out of some of the initial private company auctions and let Matt and George fight over them, hoping to preserve some cash to get a head start on the public companies.

This strategy served me well - for a while. I think I was probably in the lead for most of the game, but as I hit my certificate limit near the endgame I got a bit restless and did a stock transaction that I was to regret. I sold a share of one of Matt's companies but failed to realize that it wouldn't reduce the share value. His company continued to soar while I gained little to nothing in the transaction. It was an extremely close finish, with Matt edging me out by about 100 Kr and George a bit further behind me. This game took about 4.5 hours to finish, but would likely take 3-3.5 hours if we ever manage to play it again.

Julie's uncle was in town last weekend and we brought out Ticket to Ride: Europe as a gateway / introductory game to teach Bill. He caught on quickly and I think he enjoyed it quite a bit. I pulled out a slim margin win, with Jacob coming in a close second. I was able to focus on eastern Europe without too much distraction, allowing me to finish 5 tickets including a long run.

Look at what jumped out at Jacob today while working in the yard:

Note: I think this is a Cross Spider.