Game Plan 2022 - 5x/10x Game Challenges

 I was thinking a little more about what games I might like to play in the coming months and try to solidify that into a challenge (or two... or three...?) 

Looking at the games I've played so far this year... 

• Wingspan x11
• Terraforming Mars x9
• Five Tribes x7
• Azul x6
• Warhammer Underworlds: Direchasm x6
• Carcassonne x5
• Quebec 1759 x5
• Splendor x3
• Andean Abyss x2
• Wizard Kings x2
• Wrath & Glory x2
• Bananagrams x1
• For Sale x1
• Marrying Mr. Darcy x1
• The Silver Bayonet x1

So, give that, and some of the games I'd like to focus on, I thought I'd come up with a 10x10 Challenge list to try and help maintain that focus. Some were obvious (as I'd already played ten, or very nearly...). Others, less so... and might get swapped out at some point.

2022 (PROVISIONAL) 10x10 Game Challenge List 

1. Wingspan 
2. Terraforming Mars 
3. Five Tribes 
4. Azul 
5. Warhammer Underworlds: Direchasm 
6. Warhammer Underworlds: Harrowdeep
7. Carcassonne 
8. Kill Team
9. GMT Games
10. Role-Playing Game? Or Columbia Block Games?

Wingspan is DONE, don't have to play any more... though I'm sure we probably will

Just need to play one more game of Terraforming Mars and that one is done too. Five Tribes only needs three. So neither of these will even feature in the Q3 or Q4 5x5 Challenges, as I'm sure we can just pick those up along the way. 

I've already played 6 games of Warhammer Underworlds (set in the Beastgrave - which I log as Direchasm on BGG because it was the set I started with...). My plan is, over the summer, run a narrative sort of campaign for Amanda with Warhammer Underworlds... 

The idea is the campaign will follow the exploits of Amanda's favoured warband: Morgwaeth's Blade-Coven. I'll throw different warbands at them each week and try to weave some sort of narrative between the clashes. The plan is to play five more games set in Beastgrave/Direchasm over the next month while I get a few of the Harrowdeep/Nethermaze warbands finished up. Then we'll switch settings - Morgweath will have found a way... well.. if not home, at least a way OUT of Beastgrave and closer to home (as Harrowdeep is actually located just off the coast of Hag-Nar - Morgweath's home temple from which she and her blade-coven were dispatched to the Beastgrave!). 

I like Carcassonne. Amanda is ambivalent. She'll play. We've played five games already, so I thought I could add that to the Q4 5x5 Challenge and we could knock those out in the winter. 

The kids and I are planning to play a little Kill Team campaign this summer. Initially it was just going to be me and Finnegan, and I was planning something similar to what I'm doing with Amanda with Warhammer Underworlds - run a little narrative campaign that focuses on the story of HIS Kill Team (probably the fancy new T'au Pathfinders from Kill Team: Chalnath!) and I'd come up with a series of scenarios for him to play through facing different opponents. 

I only just found out today that Keiran was DEPLY HURT that I didn't ask THEM to join us!? I only hadn't because the last time we spoke of whole 40K thing, they said in no uncertain terms then NEVER liked and of 40K - regular 40K or Kill Team or any of the role-playing games. They said they TRIED to get interested in it because everyone else was interested... but they just couldn't.... So I respected that and didn't even try to persuade them to play ever since... I mean, they've shown NO INTEREST in ANY games for over a year!? 

I guess Finnegan somehow got them watching If the Emperor had a Text-to-Speech Device and they've had a bit of a change of heart... 

(I guess I'm going to have to watch it now, too...) 

Rather than trying to play any of the GMT games TEN times, I thought I'd make it a broad category that could include COIN games (Andean Abyss, On a Distant Plain, Fire in the Lake), Labyrinth, Twilight Struggle, Paths of Glory, etc... It might be two games five times each (as I DO like the idea of playing a game a few times to really get to know it!) or three games 3-4 times each... but it probably WON'T be either on game ten times or ten different games, once...

The Columbia Block Games, like GMT, is more of a category of games. These include Quebec 1759, Wizard Kings, Hammer of the Scots. I've played Quebec 1759 five times already. I've played Wizard kings twice, but probably won't bother trying it again... I COULD just play Hammer of the Scots three times and call it DONE, but I think I'll try and add it to one of the Quarterly 5x5 Challenges... 

I'm still holding out that I MIGHT get a role-playing game of SOME sort going on again in the fall... 

So here is what the Q3 and Q4 5x5 Challenges might look like:

Q3 5x5 Challenge

1. Warhammer Underworlds: Direchasm (4 more) 
2. Warhammer Underworlds: HarrowDeep
3. GMT Games
4. Kill Team
5. Hammer of the Scots

Q4 5x5 Challenge

1. Warhammer Underworlds: Harrowdeep
2. Carcassonne 
3. Role-Playing Game? Or something else?
4. Kill Team
5. GMT Games

Should keep me busy! 

AND hopefully get me motivated to start PLAYING again... 

I HAD really hoped I'd get in some games of Song of Blades and Heroes and a few of the Osprey Wargame Series this year. Maybe I'll try to set up a few one-off games over the next six months and try to focus on those next year!