At the beginning of the month we made some changes to our Family 10x10 Borad Game Challenge. At the beginning of the year we said for a game to count towards the Family Game Challenge - all four members of the family had to play in it. This was mostly to keep Amanda involved in it and not just me and the kids cranking out games and her never joining in... but through the last few months Finnegan was clearly not having fun. He sat like a grump, sulking through most games and playing them in such a way as to end the game as fast as he could - often throwing the game just to end it quicker... which kind of sucked all the fun out of it for the rest of us... and that's kind of the POINT of games, right? "Fun"!?
Teenagers...
I was kind of torn as to what to do about this. We had all agreed that these were all games we were wiling to play with each other. It's only two games a week. It doesn't seem like it should be such an onerous task. If nothing else the kid is compliant, but damn, when he doesn't WANT to do something he sure lets you know in a passive aggressive sort of way.
Anyway, we ended up decided that the games DIDN'T have to include ALL family members. There's no point in making the kid play games he's clearly not into (and ruining the fun for the rest of us).
So, I was a little discouraged at the beginning of the month after this decision was made and wasn't pushing to play games as much... and then Amanda got super busy at work - organizing a conference just for fun and preparing for a couple of other big things going on later in the month AND trying to get a months worth of work done in the first three weeks so she could take the last week of the month off while her folks were in town.... because... that's the way she is...
I've been doing a LOT of painting... and lots of activities have been wrapping up requiring extra rehearsals and recital performances...
And then Amanda's folks were in town for most of the last week... and they're not really game-playing types...
Here is what we did manage to get up to...
Saturday, 4 May 2019
The kids played Dungeon Crawl Classics... I think...
Monday/Tuesday, 6-7 May 2019
Keira and I played a game of Warhammer 40,000 (8th Edition)
She brought out her Eldar... I brought my Imperial Guard... it was pretty awesome.
You can read the full game report here:
The Battle of the Denfeld Wastes - Part One
The Battle of the Denfeld Wastes - Part Two
Friday, 10 May 2019
Amanda actually suggested we play a couple games this evening. Finnegan opted out. There was more interested in stuff on the computer to do... or... something...
First we played Century Golem Edition. It also ended up being a SUPER close game.
I ended the game picking up a sixth card, but Amanda ended up being only 3 points behind me - despite me having 6 cards to her 5... and had I not grabbed the scoring card when I did, ending the game, she likely would have the following turn or so and utterly crushed us!
Then we played Splendor. It was a pretty close game. Keira ended up being quite upset as she came very close to winning and was feeling like this might be her first time doing so... then Amanda took something which got her 15 points - which triggered the end game...
and then I took a 4 point card and a patron which rocketed me from 11 up to 18!!! Yeah...
Saturday, 11 May 2019
This was Keira's birthday party...
She decided she wanted a GIANT CHOCOLATE DONUT for a cake. She made it herself.
She pretty much invited the Saturday Dungeon Crawl Classics crew and ran a game of Dungeons and Doggies for them. (Heidi was supposed to come too, but her cat died...).
She also got them to play a few other games - like Just Desserts!
Friday, 17 May 2019
The following Friday our friend Laura joined us for a game of Terraforming Mars!
Laughing about something...?
This was the first time Laura played and she totally crushed it - ending the game with 71 points - taking the Mayor Milestone and being second for both the Scientist and Thermalist awards!! She played with a beginner corporation... which may have given her a BIT of an edge - but we've all played nearly 10 times, so...
Amanda played Thorgate and came in second with 67 points - taking the Builder Milestone and both the Banker and Scientist awards. Keira played Inventrix and wasn't too far behind with 60 - she was second for both the Banker and Scientist awards. Finnegan actually played with us and he played the United Nations Mars Initiative and ended with 48 points - not sure what happened, early in the game he was off to a commanding lead...
I played Helion, which I don't think I've played before. I took the Gardener Milestone and was first for the Thermalist award - and had a tonne of fun playing the game. I ended up with only 59 points though... Ah, well... Strangely I only put ONE blue card into play all game? Just didn't ever draw any.
Next time we're going to try with a drafting variant.
Saturday 18 May 2019
Dungeon Crawl Classics
Monday, 20 May 2019
We played a couple quick games of Set and Retro Loonacy with a friend of Amanda's from work. I didn't take pictures... I think I won the game of Retro Loonacy, but was dead last in SET. I used to rock that game... but now even Amanda had twice as many sets as me!?
Saturday, 25 May 2019
Keira was at an all day dress rehearsal for dance so Finnegan decided to run the Saturday crew through a series of Four Against Darkness games.
Keira got home before everyone took off so they ran through one more adventure with her.
Friday, 31 May 2019
This evening we all agreed to sit down and play Abyss. Even Finnegan... and he was even in a good mood and happy to play.
I ended up doing pretty good in this one.
92 points - my highest score yet! Getting the right locations really helps.
Well...
At this point we should probably be at about 40 games played and we're only at 34... I guess that isn't TOO far behind. We'll probably get playing a few more games over the summer when we're less busy with activities and stuff (though I am, in theory, supposed to be renovating the "Game Room" in the basement...).
Need to get painting those Blackstone Fortress figures so we can start playing THAT!!! Maybe that should be my goal once the Drukhari are done for the upcoming tournament.
Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:
Probably some more Drukhari - the rest of the Hellions first, most likely - and hopefully a bunch more 40K game reports!
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Yeah, playing games should be fun. Forcing it is probably not doing anyone any favors. If anything it might turn some people off. Goals can be good, but they can also start to feel like a chore. Best to enjoy the fun when it is had. (I doubt I'm saying anything earth-shattering :) )
ReplyDeleteThese are my feelings exactly! When I first set out the challenge I was fully aware that it might not get finished - I mean, I did try to pick games that would be easy to play that I thought everyone would be stoked to play... but from the get-go I wasn't going to FORCE anyone to play... hence changing the challenge...
DeleteYou are not far behind your planned games count. At the rate you play, it should be doable to catch up.
ReplyDeleteAs for Finnegan, better to not spoil the fun for others. Maybe there are others games he would prefer playing? Teenagers! You got that right!
I'm really not THAT worried about being behind - or even completing the challenge. When I stop and take a minute and think about the goal - it was really about giving ourselves an excuse to get together as a family and HAVE FUN together, if doing those things isn't fun for him anymore, there is zero point in forcing it. He did play Terraforming Mars part way through the month - and we all had fun - so he hasn't entirely given up on playing games with us, and, honestly, I'm trilled he has his own friends he plays games with (3-4 times a week!!).
DeleteSounds like you're getting plenty of games in and tennagers are meant to be antagonistic at least a bit!
ReplyDeleteBest Iain
Ha! Seriously, if not wanting to play certain games with me is as bad as it gets, I'll take it!
DeleteNow you have TWO teenagers? Scary.
ReplyDeleteAs for "not many games" I note that you still have a pretty good total.
As an aside, I played part of the way through a game of Wingspan lately, have you heard about it?
Teah... though I have very little to complain about with my teenagers, if I'm begin honest.
DeleteI am aware, I do still get in a lot of games... and we're already playing a lot more so far in June!!
I am aware of Wingspans existence, but know very little about it and have been actively avoiding learning anything about it because I still have Bios Megafauna and Bios Origins that I haven't even played yet! I have actually significantly cut back on the new game buying so far this year. Oh, I've bought a few expansions... Kill Team: Elites, Venus Next, etc. (and...y'know... some miniatures...) But I'm trying really hard not to buy any completely new games. I'm hoping Wingspan will be on the schedule for ToonCon next year and I'll play it there...
I take it you enjoyed it or thought it was neat?
Yeah, it is pretty advanced for us, but the art is lovely, and once you start figuring out the mechanisms it plays very smoothly. I bought it for my buddy's birthday, and was apparently extremely lucky to be able to do so, sold out online from all the usual suspects, but a local game store I called on a whim had one copy on hand! We played 3 of 4 rounds, but stopped there because our fourth player dropped out. Our first round took more time than all the other play combined... it was hard to wrap out heads around the game play, but then it went very quickly and smoothly after that.
Delete[you select actions per turn, with the goal of scoring points, bird cards are played on your board in various rows and columns, completing an action for a row activates birds in that row, columns are the cost/benefit of completing the action. Also clearly set up for expansions, so people who like it will be able to get very deep.]
Looks like it's #4 on the BGG Hotness list right now... I went and looked it up... I may have to get that now (darn you!). I'll probably get away with it, though, because Amanda's a birder and would probably be totally into it!!
DeleteToo bad it sounds complicated - my parents are HUGE birders too, and I'm always on the look out for game to play with them, but they're not really serious/hardcore gamers. looks like it's an engine-building and I think that might be a bit beyond them.
DeleteMy buddy and his wife are birders too, so that was part of the draw of it (and I saw that it was nominated for a kennerspiel des jahre)
Delete