Could this be the winner?

It’s that time of year again – time for the annual Dice Tower Awards!
Well, actually it’s time for the game nominations to be announced.

This week, The Dice Tower Network announced the nominations for the Dice Tower Gaming Awards for 2011. A committee made up of over 40 prominent board game podcasters and bloggers has come up with the lists of the best games released in the year 2011.

This year, it was decided to increase the nomination slate for Game of the Year to 10 games rather than five. They’ve also added two new categories: Best Digital Board Games – for board games translated to iOS devices or computers, and a Best Game Theme category – in which games are recognized for having unique, refreshing themes or portraying their theme well.

The winners will be announced the first week of July – after more game playing and comparisons can be made from repeated plays to judge which are really the Best of the Best.

Here’s this year’s list of nominations in the 13 categories, along with designer and English publisher.

We’ve found it interesting how these nominees compare to the Best Board Game and Best Card Game of 2011 list that we posted about just after 2011 came to a close. That preliminary list included 27 games. What’s interesting is that only 13 of those became nominees in The Dice Tower Awards 2011.

Now I better get back to playing some games – so I can be better prepared to worthily contribute along with the others around the world judging this year’s nominees and ultimate winners!

If you’re interested in seeing The Dice Tower Awards lists from years past, head to the Dice Tower website.
2010 – Best Game of the Year Winner: 7 Wonders
2009 – Best Game of the Year Winner: Smallworld
2008 – Best Game of the Year Winner: Dominion
2007 – Best Game of the Year Winner: Race for the Galaxy

This post is from The Board Game Family. Best Board Games of 2011 – Nominees announced! The Board Game Family - Families that play together stay together

Let's go team!

We’ve said it many times before – We love cooperative board games. We love them because they encourage teamwork to win the game. And when we can’t win, we all feel the pain of defeat together.

They’re also a great way to get younger kids to enjoy board games because you’re not competing against them. You don’t have to ‘take it easy’ on them because you’re after the same goal.

So when we first heard about Flash Point: Fire Rescue our interest was piqued. The big question would be “is it a good board game?”

And with the cool picture of a firefighter rushing ahead with an ax, Caleb was anxious to open and play the game the moment he saw it. So here’s Caleb to show you Flash Point: Fire Rescue and tell you what he thinks about the game.

Can the whole family enjoy Flash Point: Fire Rescue?

Time to save the cat.

Yes, cooperative board games can work well for families. But just because it’s cooperative, doesn’t guarantee it will be fun or engaging. And that’s where we’re happy to say that Flash Point is fun and engaging.

One of the things that we really like about Flash Point is the randomness of where the fire heats up. During every player’s turn they roll 2 dice to see where the next smoke token is placed using a cool grid system. So you never know what you’re going to get. Everything may be going along just great and then all of a sudden, explosions start happening and knocking out walls.

The walls are starting to crumble.

The other random element is where the people and pets (points of interest) pop up during the game for you to go rescue. In one game we played, Trevor rescued 4 of the 7 people from the same room. He’d step in a couple spaces, rescue a person, and get out of the building. Then the lucky dice roll happened to place the next person to rescue in that same room – so back in he’d go.

Sure a firefighting game sounds like a serious topic, but we laughed a ton as we hailed Trevor for being the master fireman saving everyone as they’d keep appearing out from under the bed (or so we joked since it happened to be a bedroom).

And even though the recommended ages on the game box say 10+, since it’s a cooperative game don’t hold back introducing it to younger players. Sure younger players may not be able to pick it up and play it on their own from the start. But once they’ve been introduced to how to play, they may even be fine to tackle it without your help.

How many people can play Flash Point: Fire Rescue?

Great game components as well.

Another reason we think Flash Point is great for families is because up to 6 people can play it together. And since we’re a family of 6, that sits very well with us. But Flash Point is also great to play with only 2 – which means that we don’t have to pull out a competitive head-to-head 2-player game every time that we only have 2 people that want to play a game.

You may think it would be easier to win with more players, since more rescuing could happen. But that’s not the case because the fire also spreads a lot quicker when everyone’s rolling for fire each turn. Overall, we’ve found it fun no matter the number of players.

How does Flash Point compare to other cooperative board games?
People often ask us to compare games for a variety of reasons. It may be because they like a certain style of game play and would like similar games. Or on the flip-side don’t want games that are too similar. Whatever the reason, we know we’ll be asked how Flash Point compares to other cooperative board games.

Advanced game play notches up the difficulty.

While this will likely be a future topic where we can go into more depth between cooperative games, we’ll quickly say that Flash Point has a unique feel to us and stands very well on its own. In fact, each of the cooperative games we’ve reviewed have their own unique feel. In each game, there’s a crisis of some sort that must be overcome. And the way that those crisis’s escalate is different in each.

In Flash Point, we enjoy the theme of being a team of rescuers. And the compactness of the game board and the way the threat spreads all work together so well. In the family play rules the game is very straightforward and streamlined making it very easy to understand and remember. There isn’t too much going on and that’s a great thing.

But there’s also another level at which you can play Flash Point. The game also includes other elements and rules that will add more complexity and challenge to the game if you’re looking for something deeper.

How does Flash Point score on the “Let’s Play Again” game meter?
As you could guess from our review, Flash Point scores high on our “let’s play again” game meter. Flash Point plays in a relatively short amount of time for the type of game that it is and as such is easy to set up and play again. And when you lose, that’s exactly what you’ll want to do – play it again. It’s also going to be a game that stays within reach on the game shelf for frequent play.

Thanks to Indie Board & Cards for a great family cooperative board game!

The Board Game Family Game Ratings
	Caleb
	Brooke
	Jaden
	Trevor
	Mom
	Dad
	Average

This post is from The Board Game Family. Time for a team rescue – Flash Point: Fire Rescue The Board Game Family - Families that play together stay together

It's time to head out on an adventure.

Minions are quickly spreading across the land and the evil Generals are relentlessly advancing on Monarch City from the outer regions. Can you and your little band of adventures rid the land of these dark forces before it’s too late?

In Defenders of the Realm, that’s exactly what you’ll have to do.

Cooperative board games are great for families because it gets you all working together toward a common goal. And you’ll win or lose the game together as a team. So when Defenders of the Realm was first published in 2010, I thought it looked promising. After all, it’s set in a fantasy world with wizards, elves, dwarves, rangers, and evil foes to vanquish. Wouldn’t it be fun to have this great adventure with my 3 sons?

The land is swarming with evil - time to fight it back!

So when I finally picked up a copy from Eagle Games last month, I was excited to get the boys together and play Defenders of the Realm.

But lo and behold, the one that loved it right from the start was Brooke – our 11 year old daughter!

Brooke has never been interested in anything fantasy themed in the past. Fantasy themed games hold no interest for her and the same has been true for any other dice rolling combat type games. So my assumption from the very beginning was that she’d have no interest in Defenders of the Realm. Thus, my only thoughts were centered on playing it with my boys.

Fun characters to adventure with.

But when I set up the game for the first time, Brooke walked in to see what I was up to. Then she noticed that there were a couple female character roles and asked me what the game was about. Next thing I know, she’d picked a character card and pulled up a chair.

So we went through what she could do on her turn, what her special skills were and we were off and rolling – literally. And of course right from the start she was knocking down minions left and right and worrying about not rolling high enough numbers. And as the generals started advancing she was totally into the game – concerned that we wouldn’t get to them in time.

You can hear it straight from Brooke herself in her video review of Defenders of the Realm. The video may be a little longer than average, but there’s a lot going on in the game and she wanted to talk about it all.

Can the whole family enjoy Defenders of the Realm?
While I thought Defenders of the Realm might appeal just to boys and more specifically to teenage boys, I was pleasantly surprised that it can appeal to girls as well. To have Brooke asking when we’re going to play Defenders of the Realm again is a pleasant surprise.

There is a lot to keep track off with all the special abilities of each character, the unique challenges of each evil faction, and the multiple things you can do on your turn. So the recommended ages of 13+ and the game length of 90-120 minutes will tell you that it’s not for the youngsters.

But since it’s a cooperative board game, don’t worry about letting your kids younger than 13 joining on the adventure. When they see all the awesome pieces on the board and the colored dice, they’ll want to check it out and join in the fun.

Watching Brooke’s video review will give your a great feel for what’s involved with the game so you can see if it’s something your family would enjoy too.

The Minions are waiting in the wings ready to infest the land!

Are there downsides to Defenders of the Realm?
Defenders of the Realm is a great cooperative game, but it does have a couple things we were disappointed about. The most noticeable one we’ve encountered are the generals miniatures that won’t stand up straight. Don’t get us wrong – the miniature pieces in the game are fantastic and very well themed. However, the biggest and most imposing of the generals, Sapphire, keeps falling over.

That big blue dragon is fantastic, but also loves to nap during the game. Any little tap on the table, and down it goes. After standing it back up multiple times, we give up and just let it rest on its side for the remainder of the game.

The character cards are a great element of the game.

The other element that we’ve had to work around are the hero cards. The hero cards came in two decks – standard and special. They all get put into one hero deck during play, but when we put them together we noticed that the special cards are cut ever so slightly larger – which makes shuffling difficult. They can still be shuffled, but not cleanly. Instead, while shuffling the cards go in clumps and thus don’t get a thorough mix. So we’ve had to change our way of mixing the deck instead of shuffling so we don’t get batches of one color of card coming up repeatedly to the scarcity of another color (inevitably the one we’ll need).

But those two production issues aside, the game is a lot of fun and difficult to win. We haven’t had to ramp up the difficulty level at all and we’re still trying to get our first win! We’ve come extremely close only to have it slip away just before the winning play. But rather than frustration, the difficulty of winning has added to the fun.

There’s nothing quite like aching to play the game again because you didn’t win. If you win too easily, it may get boring after a while. And Defenders of the Realm isn’t boring. The time flies by because we’re so involved in the game.

How does Defenders of the Realm score on the “Let’s Play Again” meter?
Defenders of the Realm scores very high on our “let’s play again” game meter. Even though the game takes a while to play, it’s one that we’ve really enjoyed and will pull out again and again. Maybe it’s because we’re still trying to get that elusive win!

Thanks Eagle Games for a fun family cooperative board game!

The Board Game Family Game Ratings
	Caleb
	Brooke
	Jaden
	Trevor
Has not played	Mom
	Dad
	Average

This post is from The Board Game Family. Time to Defend our Realm! The Board Game Family - Families that play together stay together

Carcassonne tops the list.

That’s hard for us to believe because we know our extended family isn’t that big.

All we can say is THANK YOU for participating with us in the fun endeavor of family game time.

Those numbers indicate that on average each video has been viewed more than 3,000 times. However, we know that’s definitely not the case. Some board game reviews clearly stand out as the most popular.

So what are our most viewed board game and card game video reviews?

Our most viewed Family Board Game and Card Game Video Reviews are:
(at the time of this posting – 2/29/12)

Carcassonne
Carcassonne is one of the games that launched our family into the fun world of family board games. It’s on our Top 10 Must Have Family Board Games list for a reason. And it’s closing in on 50,000 views!

Dominion
Dominion is truly an card game like no other. It’s the most addictive card game we have and continually tops our list of most played card game. It may take you a play or too to get a feel for it, but once you do, it’s hard not to be hooked.

Risk: Star Wars the Clone Wars
This was the first board game that we filmed a review for so the video has its issues. But it’s still a great game. Of course we love the Star Wars theme and that it’s a game of Risk that builds up good to and end-game condition rather than going on forever.

Qwirkle
Qwirkle won the Spiel des Jahres award for best board game last year for a reason – it’s a great family board game. With luck of the tile draw and strategic tile placement it’s got a great balance for family fun.

Sequence
Sequence is a staple in our game closet. It’s a simple game that works well on so many levels. And whenever we get together with extended family for a weekend, it’s on the table.

Ticket to Ride: Europe
The Ticket to Ride series is simply a great group of family board games. If you haven’t tried it yet, don’t wait any longer. And for what it’s worth, we like the Europe version best.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid Cheese Touch
We think it’s pretty funny that this game is in the Top 10 of video reviews viewed – with almost 10,000 (as of this writing). Our guess is that there’s a ton of kids that love the books and have watched the movies. So of course they want to check out what the game’s like.

Blokus
Blokus is another abstract board game that’s fantastic for families. There have been a number of derivative board games created from the success of Blokus. But it’s hard to beat the original.

Killer Bunnies and the Quest for the Magic Carrot
Killer Bunnies is full of wackiness. Don’t know what wackiness is? Then pick up a copy of Killer Bunnies. The fun must be found in the playing of the game because the winning condition at the end is completely random. So enjoy the journey, not the destination.

Bang!
Bang! is actually THE game that put us on this path of reviewing family board games. It was Caleb at age 6 being placed in the role of Sheriff and coming out with guns blazing where we knew we had something on our hands and just had to share it with others. And since then we’ve added the Dodge City expansion that adds even more fun to the game.

So that’s our Top 10 The Board Game Family Video Reviews list based on the time of this writing. There are a bunch of great family board games that haven’t quite cracked this list yet and you can see which those are by visiting our YouTube channel.

If you want to see where these games rank our our favorite games, check out our Board Game Reviews page and click on the column headings to sort it as you see fit.

This post is from The Board Game Family. Top 10 Most Viewed Board Game Video Reviews The Board Game Family - Families that play together stay together

Do all of your board games get jumbled together too?

When we saw this Baby Blues comic in yesterday’s newspaper, we just had to share it. Our day doesn’t seem quite complete if we don’t read Baby Blues. Even the kids love the funny family comic. So when it mentioned board games, we especially got a kick out of it.

It also reminded us of a number of comments we received from friends after they saw us on TV on Studio 5 and noticed the shot of our game closet. They mentioned how organized our game closet looked with games stacked nicely on the shelves. By comparison, while they only have a handful of board games, they’re laying disorganized on a closet shelf with all the pieces scattered amongst them.

They have to go somewhere.

Organized by Default
Of course, we can’t claim that our game closet has always been organized either. In fact, we didn’t start out with a board game closet even on the list. Our current board game closet was actually built to be a storage closet. And we planned for a cabinet in the family room where we’d place our games so we could easily pull them out to play. But then the family board game bug struck and before you know it, we got carried away.

With a current board game, card game, and party game count coming in over 250 we need to be organized. It’s that simple.

Thus our storage closet became our walk-in game closet. And when we’re looking for a game, we simply head to that section. Kind of like a library. We’ve put all the party games in one area and card games in another. The large box games are stacked near the back and the kid games are on the lower shelves. And so it goes.

Stormtroopers on the beach in '44.

If we didn’t organize it some way, we’d be overwhelmed.

Creative Kids
But the thing that I love about the Baby Blues comic is how the kids make creative use of the games. Who says you have to be limited by the rules of a game? And in a like manner, who says you have to keep the games separate at all?

Why not just have fun with your games in any way you choose?

We know there's treasure here.

In fact, that’s probably just how some board games get designed. The designers take parts of games they enjoy and then find creative ways to combine them with a new theme.

And if your game pieces do get mixed around, that might bring fresh life to some of your family board games. Why not have Star Wars characters storm the beaches in Memoir ’44 or Gold Miners look for treasure on Forbidden Islands?

So this week we challenge you to add some creativity to your family board game time. Mix it up a little and see what your family can come up with during your game time.

This post is from The Board Game Family. How organized are your board games? The Board Game Family - Families that play together stay together

We’re often asked what our favorite new board games and card games are. And when the year rolls around to a new year, the question gets asked more frequently. Many people are anxious to hear what the best board games of the past year were.

While we’d love to give the definitive list of best board games to the world, it brings up a few issues.

1. With about 1,000 new board games releasing every year, there’s no way for one person to judge them all. How can one person or one family get through all those games to compare them?
2. With so many different types of games, how should we compare one against another (party game vs. a deeply themed strategy game) ?
3. When’s the best time to judge the games? Can we judge it like a movie with a singular experience or should it first stand the test of time?

So with those issues in mind, we’re happy to point you in a solid direction.

This month The Dice Tower podcast released 2 episodes focused on the Best Board Games of 2011. The great thing about this source for a “best of” listing is that contributors from around the world weigh in on what they believe the best games of 2011 were. They also break them down into various categories so it’s easier to compare one against another.

In regards to how soon a game can be declared “the best”, the final Dice Tower list will come out in the summer of 2012 – after many plays and rounds of nominations and voting from game reviewers across the globe. That’s when we’ll have a better feel for how the test of time will treat these new games.

With that in mind, here are the games that made The Dice Tower preliminary list of Best Board Games of 2011. (Of course, at the end we’ll also tell you which board games our family liked best from 2011.)

Best Board Games and Card Games of 2011 – The Dice Tower

• Super Dungeon Explore
• Star Trek Fleet Captains
• Discworld: Ankh-Morpork
• Mage Knight Board Game
• Eminent Domain
• Yomi
• Kingdom Builder
• BattleCON: War of Indines
• Quarriors
• King of Tokyo
• Castles of Burgundy
• Eclipse
• Paperclip Railways
• Risk Legacy
• Battleship Galaxies
• Core Worlds
• Node
• Sentinels of the Multiverse
• Airlines Europe

And their Runners Up are:

• Letters from Whitechapel
• Dungeon Run
• Fealty
• Dungeons & Dragons: Conquest of Nerath Board Game
• The Ares Project
• Conquest of Planet Earth
• Few Acres of Snow
• Panic Station

Best Board Games and Card Games of 2011 – The Board Game Family
Here are the 2011 games that our family liked the most:

• Knock Your Blocks Off
• City Square Off
• Say Anything Family Edition
• Dixit Odyssey
• Reverse Charades Junior Edition
• Martian Dice
• Dominion: Cornucopia
• Ninja: Legend of the Scorpion Clan
• Castle Panic: The Wizard’s Tower

(As you can tell, we’ve got a few of these game reviews still coming.)

It’s an understatement to say that there’s a ton of 2011 board games that we haven’t had a chance to play yet. Here are the 2011 board and card games that we’re most anxious to try:

• Kingdom Builder
• King of Tokyo
• Dominion: Hinterlands
• 7 Wonders Leaders
• Power Grid: The Robots
• Ticket to Ride: Alvin and Dexter
• Small World: Underground
• A Fistful of Penguins
• Secret of Monte Cristo
• Lost Temple
• Pastiche
• Rumble in the House
• The Road to Canterbury
• Dungeons & Dragons: Wrath of Ashardalon
• Dungeons & Dragons: Conquest of Nerath Board Game

It’s a long list and who knows if we’ll have a chance to try these board games or not, but it should be fun trying. After all, we’re thinking there may be another cool game or two come out in 2012 that we’ll want to play along the way.

Have a great 2012 with your family!

Do you have a Best Board Games of 2011? Tell us about it in the comments below.

This post is from The Board Game Family. Best Board Games and Card Games of 2011 The Board Game Family - Families that play together stay together

What defines a board game or card game?

In our view, the whole definition of a board game or card game revolves around it being something physical that you can touch, feel, and move around. Playing board games is all about the social interaction of sitting around, face-to-face and moving stuff around on the table or from hand to hand.

So what’s the deal with board games going digital? And do they still qualify as “board” games, “card” games, or “dice” games if they don’t have physical boards, cards, or dice?

So many board games have gone digital

Take your games with you.

With the rise of the iPod, iPad, iPhone, Android, and other mobile devices, digital gaming has gotten another big boost. It’s amazing what they can cram into mobile devices. And one of the most popular uses of these “phones” is actually games. It seems everywhere we turn, we’ll see people playing games on their devices.

Board games have also shot up in popularity over the last decade as more and more great board games and card games are developed and sold. So it’s really no surprise that the two forces should meet. And over the last year, we’ve seen a huge rise in the number of board games and card games that are being ported over to a digital medium.

Digital games have also gone physical

Bring on the birds!

As we’ve watched the rise of these fun board games being given their digital incarnation, we’ve seen the blurring definition of “board game”. Is it dependent on what medium a game starts out with? If it first comes to life as a physical board game and then goes digital, is it still considered a board game. But if it first comes on the scene as a video game and then goes physical, is it still a video game?

Because that has happened too. Angry Birds is an amazing example of that. Angry Birds may be the most popular game on digital devices. But did you also know, that not too long ago it came to life as a physical game where you build structures, place pigs, then fling birds to knock them down? So what is Angry Birds – a video game or a board game? Or can it be both?

Great Board Games gone digital

Great digital cooperative games.

Whatever we call them, one thing is for certain – great games will find a way to live. And in today’s world, that means they’ll go for whatever medium will support them and will gain a huge following. (And makes financial sense for the designers, developers, and publishers.)

So maybe instead we should be surprised if fantastic board games and card games don’t go digital.

Just to give you a glimpse, here are great board games that are now available for playing on mobile devices:

• Smallworld
• Forbidden Island
• Ticket to Ride
• Carcassonne
• Hey That’s My Fish
• Roll Through the Ages
• Zooloretto
• Tikal

That’s just a sample – there are a ton more available. Just check the iTunes store for board games and you’ll find plenty. And if you look beyond mobile gaming, you’ll see even more available as online computer games.

If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em

So what’s a board game lover to do?

Games are played very quickly.

Leaning towards the purist side of the equation, we held off for a long time on playing digital incarnations of these fun board games. However, with kids interested in games, “life will find a way” (to quote Ian Malcolm in Jurassic Park). And sure enough, before you know it, we’re playing digital versions of our loved games.

Our best example is the recently released version of Ticket to Ride on the iOS. Since we love Ticket to Ride, we had to take the plunge on this one. So last month we loaded the Ticket to Ride app on our iPods and iPhone to check it out. And it was a hit. It takes all the fun of the board game and boils it down into a fantastic mobile game loaded with goals and achievements to get you hooked into playing over and over.

And what did the kids think of it?

Nice Christmas present, eh?

Just take a look at the “present” Caleb, our 8 yr old, gave us for Christmas. It’s a card he made in his class at school and it’s simply a thank you card – thanking us for putting Ticket to Ride on our iPhone and iPod. What a simple thing to put a smile on our faces.

But don’t think that’s the only version of the game he’ll play now. Just the other day when I came home from work, I found Caleb playing and teaching the Ticket to Ride board game to one of his friends. And it didn’t stop with one play. His buddy wanted to play again and again.

Maybe, just maybe, that’s what the publishers are after – reach a huge, modern audience with digital versions and then hope for an upsell to the physical board games. After all, we don’t doubt that digital games are currently hitting a broader base than physical board games. So if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.

Now we can’t wait for some digital board games

With the fun we’ve had with Ticket to Ride, we actually find ourselves hoping to see certain games come out for mobile devices. And at the top of our wish list are Dominion and Thunderstone. We’ve seen announcements that Thunderstone is being developed, but we haven’t heard about Dominion yet.

Playing Dominion with friends when we can’t get together to play for one reason or another would be awesome!

Why would these make great digital card games?

Tile laying without the tiles.

First, because they’re addicting. With the random selection of different decks to play with every time, the game changes every time you play. But the other reason they’d made for great digital versions is because there’s a ton of shuffling. The deck building games are full of shuffling your deck over and over as you play. With a digital version, you don’t have to take time shuffling. You’ll just see your cards and play them.

So taking out the shuffling is a great benefit of digital gaming. You also don’t have to worry about the set up time of the game. Setting out all the decks of cards and putting them all away at the end does take time.

The same is true for a lot of board games. Setting up before play and cleaning up after play take up time. And digital gaming can save time on both of those fronts. So playing digital games will go much faster. Which also means that you’ll be able to play a lot more games in the same amount of time. Which is pretty cool.

But on the flip side, the setting up and cleaning up is also a great part of the physical board game play. Taking time to set up a game provides a great opportunity to talk with your fellow players and engage in the socialization that makes board game playing so fun. It’s not all about the game, but rather about the people you’re playing with.

Will digital games kill their board game version?

NO!

Moving bits is where it's at!

We don’t think that digital incarnations of great board games will kill the physical board game version at all.

Like we just mentioned, the big draw for physical board games and card games is the socialization. Getting together with friends and family is what it’s about.

Now, if you want to enjoy the game by yourself when you’re not with friends, then a mobile version is awesome. Or if your friends or family live far away, staying in touch by playing a digital game at a distance can be great fun as well.

But if you want a reason to get together and enjoy face-to-face time, then grab the game off the shelf and sit down at the table and have a great time together pushing bits, shuffling cards, and rolling dice.

What do you think about board games going digital?
We’d love to hear.

This post is from The Board Game Family. Digital Board Games – an Oxymoron? The Board Game Family - Families that play together stay together

So many games, so little time.

Our family had a great time playing lots of new board games and card games in 2011!

We also had a great time playing games that we’ve had for years.

In fact, it’s very relaxing to play a board game that we’re familiar with rather than always learning rules to new games. Don’t get me wrong. I love seeing all the new games that come out every year and learning how to play these fun games. But at times, it can feel like more work rather than relaxation. And to kids, familiarity is very comforting. So we make sure to intersperse both new and old games throughout the year.

So what are the board games that we played most in 2011?
Knowing what board games and card games we played most might be difficult if we didn’t have such a cool tool from BoardGameGeek.com (BGG) that let’s us track our game plays. Of course, most families that enjoy playing games, just play and don’t worry about recording what they play. But I guess that’s why the site has “Geek” in the name. For some reason, I find it cool to track things. And when there’s a tool for tracking game plays, and I can have access to it on my mobile device, why not record it?

You may have noticed in our right-hand sidebar a list of “Recently Played Games”. This little widget is pulled from the tool on BGG showing the last 5 games we’ve played. Pretty cool!

We can also run reports from the tool to find out what games we play most in a given period of time. Of course, since I’m not around all the time, I don’t keep track of what the kids play with each other or with their friends. So this list is what I (dad) have played the most in 2011. And while I’ve played a number of games with friends, you can bet that the majority of my game playing is with the family.

98 Different Games played in 2011
Ok – this is crazy to see, but I played as many different games in 2011 as I did in 2010 – 98!

That’s a lot of different games to play in 1 year – close to 2 different games per week. I knew we’d played a lot of different games, but to hit the exact same number as we did in 2010, is strange to believe.

So out of those 98 different games, which did we play the most?

5 and Dimes
One of the standard reports in the BGG tracking tool is the “5 and Dimes” report. This is a report that categorizes the games played 5-9 times (5s) and those played 10 or more times (dimes). So you can see at a quick glance which games fall into those most played groups.

Here’s my list of 5 and Dimes for 2010:

Dimes:

1. Hive – 30
2. Memoir ’44 – 25
3. Dominion – 24
4. Dominion: Seaside – 24
5. Dominion: Intrigue – 18
6. Dominion: Prosperity – 14
7. Ticket to Ride – 10

Yep – Dominion is on there a lot. I could have lumped all the Dominion games into one category, but it’s also great to see which expansions I pull from the most.

Fives:

1. Spot It
2. Martian Dice
3. Pentago
4. Shake ‘N Take
5. City Square Off
6. Quarto
7. Say Anything Family Edition
8. Rack-O
9. Bug Out
10. Lemming Mafia
11. Ligretto Dice
12. Fastrack

You’ll notice that a lot of games on this list are shorter games, rather than long strategic board games. And that’s just fine because a lot of family game time needs to be caught in the moment. If the kids are ready for some fun, light games that don’t take too long, then by all means, that’s what we’ll play. Take the time with them and have fun when you can get it!

And here’s looking forward to another fun year playing games with the family!
Who knows – maybe this year we’ll surpass more than 100 different games played in 2012!

P.S. If you’re interested in keeping track of games you’ve played, I’d suggest you check out the tool on BoardGameGeek.com.

This post is from The Board Game Family. Board Games Played Most in 2011 The Board Game Family - Families that play together stay together