Just to get me in a writing mode again, I thought I'd do a quick "five & dime" post.  This is fairly common practice among the Euro-game community - to recap the games played more than 10 times, and more than 5 times in the past year.  These don't necessarily represent the best games from last year, or even my favorite games, but they do represent good, solid games that I enjoyed enough to play regularly.

Dimes

22 - Battle Line

With 22 plays last year, Battle Line was the game I played the most in 2006.  For light, quick 2-player fun, this was both my most-played and my favorite game.  I really enjoy the tension that the game brings.  When you have a green 7-8, but two additional 7s, do you play for the straight flush, or go with the definite three of a kind?  It always has interesting decisions.  In fact, it's interesting in that the worse your cards get, the more important your decisions become.  The other remarkable thing about Battle Line is that as much as I played it last year, I never got burned out.  I'm confident it will be a "dime" for 2007.

16 - Tichu

Ahhhh, Tichu.  2006 marks the year I was introduced to Tichu, and my life will be forever changed.  Okay, that was a little melodramatic.  I grew up in a card-playing family.  We played spades, hearts, rummy, double solitaire, speed, and canasta.  So Tichu felt like a welcome old friend.  However, while I rarely ever jones for a game of spades these days, I'm almost always up for a game of Tichu.  The only drawback to the game is the need for exactly four players, and the fact that it's hard to always find 4 people who have already played.  I'm not sick of playing this one, but I'm tired of teaching it.

14 - Magic:  The Gathering

Wow.  In early 2006, I would never have guessed this would become my 3rd-most played game.  In our Lumbersmiths group, everyone was an ex-Magic player.  So when someone bought a box of Ravnica and used them exclusively for group booster drafts, it was an instant hit, and left us wanting more.  Through the year, various group members would buy a box and graciously leave the packs unopened until we did a booster draft night.  Although I don't enjoy deckbuilding much these days, booster draft is still an extremely fun way to play the game.  I don't have much interest in ever buying Magic cards again, but I am up for occasionally chipping in a few bucks for a draft night.

11 - Mystery Rummy:  Jack the Ripper

In addition to Battle Line, Christina and I played a lot of Mystery Rummy this year.  A regular date night for us was to grab dinner, head to the coffee shop and play either this or Battle Line.  She's pretty good, and I bet if I counted up our score sheets, she'd have a higher winning percentage than I do.  My only regret is we've never really played with the voting rules.  I'm sure it would make for more interesting play.  Currently, the alibi cards are mostly used for discards.

10 - Crokinole

One big gaming investment I made this year was the purchase of a Hilinski crokinole board.  I haven't gotten to play it much, mostly because it's hard to transport.  I also had a bit of a quality issue with one of the wooden pegs breaking.  The addition of rubber post-guards seems to have fixed the issue, but I'm debating on whether to send it back for repairs.  Overall, I'm very pleased with my investment.  I took this back for Thanksgiving and it was a huge hit with my family.  After teaching, I gave up my seat and let my family play several games in a row.  My dad even got involved, and he hates playing games.  If I can come up with a safe way to transport the board, it's going back for every family holiday.

Fives

9 - Roma

Roma is another 2-player game I bought this year that saw a lot of play from me and Christina.  I also tried it out with Jay and Brandon, and everyone gave a collective "meh".  I think I like it more than most.  The luck factor is definitely high, but there are some really interesting combos that you can get going with the cards. 

7 - Arkham Horror

Here's the first of the heavier games on the list.  With an average playing time of 3 hours, getting Arkham Horror to the table seven times last year was an accomplishment.  I never expected this to be a big hit with the Lumbersmiths group, but surprisingly we all enjoy it.  It's definitely an "experience" game, and we all understand that.  We play a lot of competitive games, so we really enjoy the cooperative nature of this game.  We don't find the game particularly easy, but we do win a large percentage of the time.  I think it may be time to introduce one of the expansions to our gameplay.

7 - Carabande

This one surprises me.  Only seven?  Maybe I logged the number of plays incorrectly, because I had this setup on my dining room table for weeks.  Still, I don't think it got played at all in the last half of the year.  It's a blast to play, and everyone really enjoys it.  The sheer size and setup time mean that this doesn't get played as much as it should.  (Plus, it's really hard to pack back in the box once it's out.)

7 - Twilight Struggle

Ahhhhhh, Twilight Struggle.  Seeing this played seven times brings a smile to my face.  I've blogged about it enough already, so there's not much need to express my fondness for the game.  I expect the number of plays to drop substantially this year.  Jay is my primary TS player, and I think I may have burned him out on the game.  Plus, I just introduced him to Combat Commander, so that may be our light wargame for the next few months.  Still, I hope we get to play this a few more times in 2007.

6 - Wyatt Earp

For a while, this became more fun than Mystery Rummy.  But only for a short time. 

5 - Ingenious

I like this more than everyone else, so I don't know that we'll play it 5 times in 2007.  I still think this is a great little game.  The fact that I can teach it in under 5 minutes is a big plus.

5 - Lord of the Rings:  The Confrontation

Christina and I played this three times, and then I played with Jay twice when he bought it.  I enjoy it, but I'm starting to wish I had the extra characters from the deluxe edition, even if the design wasn't nearly as nice.  Maybe I'll print them out.

5 - Samurai

It's not my favorite game, but it's easy and people know how to play.  I think 5 times in 2006 was enough.

So there are my Five and Dimes for 2006.  It's a nice list that I'm pleased with, although I'd really like to see some heavier games make the list in 2007.  One nice trend I saw in 2006 was two-player gaming.  Christina and I played a lot of games at the coffee shop and at home.  It's a nice way to spend some time together and just talk, instead of watching mindless TV.  I know we'll continue to play more games this year.  In addition, Jay and I played a lot of two-player games in the last half of the year.  We played a lot of Twilight Struggle, and I think we'll continue the card-based tradition with some Combat Commander.  (which already has two plays in January.)