Thoughts on my game collection

It's hard to believe, but we've been holding weekly WAGS meetings since January of 2004 (and writing this blog since May of the same year). In that time, I've watched my game collection grow rather rapidly, to the point that it now equals Kozure's (who started out being the guy with all the games). BGG says I own 105, but that's not entirely accurate... many of those are expansions, kids games that don't really count, or generic games (Clue, Risk, Monopoly) that are in my closet, but I don't consider part of my modern games collection. Taking those out of consideration, the collection is about 60 games.

Anyway, I'm on vacation and I'm a geek and I have a few minutes to myself at the moment so I'm going to categorize my games for fun.

I'll be splitting these up into categories that are pretty arbitrary but make sense to me.

Wargames

Hannibal: Rome vs Carthage
Lock n' Load: Band of Heroes
Memoir '44
Napoleon
Rommel in the Desert
Wilderness War

*Notes: I'm quite happy with my wargame collection. There's an accessible one for casual players (Memoir), a couple of block games (Napoleon and Rommel), a couple of card driven wargames (Hannibal and WW) and a standard hex and counter game (L n' L). Considering I don't get to play these often, I don't think I'll be adding to this list anytime soon. However, through Kozure I do occasionally get to try a different system, which is always interesting. Currently, my favorite is Rommel, with Wilderness War in second place. I haven't yet finished a game of Hannibal, but although I like it I'm afraid that the game is a bit static.

Abstracts:

Dvonn
Ingenious
Blokus

*Notes: I'm not particularly drawn to abstracts. For example, my love of all things game has generally skipped over the likes of Chess and backgammon. Still, I have a few that I enjoy well enough. Dvonn is my favorite to play, but Ingenious is the most flexible for number of players (Blokus only plays well with four, imho). These are so simple to play, they are pretty popular... particularly Blokus.

Party Games:

Apples to Apples
Bang!
Diamant
Jungle Speed
Pitchcar Mini
Taboo
Things...
Time's Up

*Notes: I've included in this category any game where the experience of getting together with a larger group and just having silly fun is the primary objective (in other words, the is not strategery here). Of these, Jungle Speed is my hands down favorite (it's the only one I'd ever bring to a games night), but Things, Taboo and Time's Up are all great fun with the right crowd. Apples to Apples is a lot like Blokus for me... I like it because it's pleasant enough and easy to teach. Diamant and Pitchcar mini are also very good, but I like them less than the others.

Games that play well with 1:

Lord of the Rings
Pandemic
Agricola (not here yet, but pre-ordered specifically because it plays solo)

*Notes: Lord of the Rings is one of my favorite games. I enjoy playing it solo, and I've had good success with family and friends as well. Pandemic also seems like it would play well but I haven't tried a full game because I have a nagging feeling that once we get too good at the game it will get boring, so I'm reserving my plays for the group.

Games that play well with 2

Light:

Carcassonne
Citadels
HeroScape*
Star Wars: Epic Duels

Medium/ casual:

Blue Moon City
Carcassonne: The City
Last Night on Earth
Lord of the Rings
Lord of the Rings: The Confrontation*
Mr. Jack*
Race for the Galaxy
Glory to Rome
Through the Desert
Ticket to Ride (w/Switzerland map)

Heavy/ strategy:

Duel of Ages*
Dungeon Twister*
Entdecker
Fury of Dracula
Goa
Tikal
Tigris and Euphrates

*Notes: The asterisks indicate those that are primarily conceived as 2 player games.

Lots of my games work well with two players, but I rarely actually play 2 player games. My wife doesn't game, and although I occasionally hook up with Kozure outside of WAGS, it's usually to play wargames. When I do play, it's usually when an out of town friend is around or a member of the extended family is passing through. There are a lot of great games on the list. Given the choice, I'd likely pick Dungeon Twister if the other player is receptive to that sort of game. Otherwise, Carcassonne, Mr. Jack or LOTR: Confrontation are likely picks, although Nexus Ops will often come out with a certain crowd. TtR: Switzerland hasn't been played very often, but when I did I really liked how cut-throat it was.

Games that play well with 3:

Light:

Citadels
Carcassonne
Ticket to Ride

Medium/ casual:

Blue Moon City
Carcassonne (with expansions)
Carcassonne: The City
China
Hollywood Blockbuster
Last Night on Earth
Lord of the Rings
Ra
Race for the Galaxy
Settlers of Catan
Through the Desert
Nexus Ops
Glory to Rome

Heavy/ Strategy:

Antike
Entdecker
Fury of Dracula
Goa
In the Year of the Dragon
Perikles
Puerto Rico
Tikal


*Notes: My favorite 3 player game is RA. Still, for a category which used to be a real problem to fill there's a lot of good games in there. Blue Moon City, Entdecker, Settlers of Catan and Tikal are all 4 player games which I feel plays best with just 3. It seems that this category really favours the medium/ casual games category, though there are definitely some good heavy ones in here (Perikles, In the Year of the Dragon, Tikal and Goa, for example)

Games that play well with 4:

Light:

Star Wars: Epic Duels
Ticket to Ride
For Sale
Formula: Motor Racing

Medium/ casual:

Blue Moon City
Conspiracy
Last Night on Earth
Mission: Red Planet
Lord of the Rings
Ra
Race for the Galaxy
Through the Desert
Nexus Ops
Formula De
RoboRally
Glory to Rome
Hollywood Blockbuster

Heavy/ Strategy:

Antike
Duel of Ages
Entdecker
Goa
In the Year of the Dragon
Perikles
Puerto Rico
Princes of Florence
El Grande
Railroad Tycoon
Tigris & Euphrates
Traders of Genoa
Conquest of the Empire

*Notes: No shortage of good games here. 4 players is by far the easiest number to accommodate. It's pretty tough picking the best games in this category because there are so many great games here and the preference would likely depend on the situation. Conspiracy is probably the only game on the list that I would really prefer only playing with 4 (though I definitely prefer Tigris and Euphrates with 4 than with 2, and I'm starting to dislike playing it with 3). The game I most want to play at WAGS with 4 is Taj Mahal, but that isn't in my collection.

Games that play well with 5:

Light:

For Sale
Formula: Motor Racing
Ticket to Ride
Transamerica

Medium/ casual:

Hollywood Blockbuster
Lord of the Rings
Mission: Red Planet
Roborally
Through the Desert
Formula De
Last Night on Earth

Heavy/ strategy:

Antike
Beowulf: The Legend
Conquest of the Empire
El Grande
In the Year of the Dragon
Princes of Florence
Puerto Rico
Railroad Tycoon
Traders of Genoa

*Notes: Unsurprisingly, the collection starts to thin out at this point. Some of my absolute favorites, such as El Grande and Princes of Florence, play best with 5 so it's always great when we get a chance to play at this number. Beowulf, Formula De and Transamerica really only play well at 5 (or more, in the case of Transamerica and Formula De)

Games that play well with 6:

Light:

Citadels
For Sale
Formula: Motor Racing
Transamerica
Star Wars: Epic Duels

Medium/ casual:

Roborally
Formula De

Heavy:

Antike
Lord of the Rings (with Sauron Expansion)
Railroad Tycoon

*Notes: Very few games play with 6. Notable in this category is the reappearance of Citadels (I dislike Citadels for 4-5 players, due to the unfortunate effects the role selection mechanism has at that number. The player to the right of the king is kind of screwed). Also, Lord of the Rings moves from the medium category to the heavy category due to the inclusion of the Sauron expansion... a relatively brutal and taxing experience. Luckily, even though many games are dropping off the list, games like Transamerica, Roborally and Formula De are coming into their own.

Games that play well with 7,8:

Formula De
Citadels

So that's it. Some games, like Goa, In the Year of the Dragon and Puerto Rico, scale well across most (if not all) of their published number of players. LOTR is the champion of versatility by playing well from 1-6 players. Others, like El Grande or Princes of Florence, only play well within very narrow parameters. Some games, like Fury of Dracula, Duel of Ages, Dungeon Twister and most of my wargames I rarely get to play due to the time investment and/or specific type of players required, but I like them enough to keep anyway. Settlers of Catan, Ticket to Ride, Nexus Ops and Blue Moon City have been the most frequently played games amongst my friends and family, while the Alea line (Ra, Princes of Florence, Traders of Genoa, Puerto Rico), Railroad Tycoon, Carcassonne and El Grande have seen the most longevity in our WAGS sessions. I get the sense that either Race for the Galaxy or Glory to Rome will stand the test of time and continue to get play years from now, but I can't yet decide which one.

Oh, and I'm still looking for a really good civ/war game that plays in a reasonable amount of time. Hopefully, someday I'll find one.