2025 Games - January

 We decided at the beginning of the year that we were going to do a challenge wherein we played all of the board games we have in our possession.
We counted them up, and have a total of 104. (!!) Which, fittingly, comes out to two per week. So, we are now playing two board games each week(end), ranking them, and, if anything scores an average of under 5 (out of 10), we'll go ahead and purge it from our library.

I also figured, why not blog about it? So, each month, I'll post the pics I took during the games, as well as some thoughts/our scores on it. Because while so much has changed, I still do love me some gimmicks.

All that out of the way, here are January's games:

1. - 12 Days  -(avg score - 5) A card game that is Christmas themed, that we bought years ago (for Christmas) and play at least once a year, typically in December. All the players give gifts to the player on their right (decide what card you're going to pass to that player - all the cards have numerical point value) and then everyone bids on how much they want the "day" that is being presented that round. Lowest card takes the day. Ties cancel each other out. I like this game just fine. It only scored an average of 5, I think, because Silas and Irina ranked it pretty low. But, it's a perfectly fine game, and since it's not UNDER 5, I say we're keeping it.

2. Abducktion - (avg score 8) - This one we got for Christmas this past year, and it's pretty great! The ducks are ADORABLE, and the game presents enough of a challenge that I definitely want to play this some more to get better at it. In the game, you collect little duck tokens of different colors, and arrange them on your board, trying to create patterns that match different cards. You can also get and use cards that give you different moves/change your board up. Quite fun, overall.

3. Attack of the Jelly Monster - (avg score, 3) - Everyone rolls die at the same time, moving markers around the board, which results in scoring at the end of the round. It's frantic, but a little TOO chaotic and there are WAAAAY too many pieces in this. Also, the board doesn't change from round to round, which makes each of the rounds feel a bit too predictable, as you can just constantly try to go for the same scoring system each time. Also also, with everyone rolling their die at the same time, you can't see that other players aren't cheating. (Not that that's something I think any of us would do, but it IS a flaw in the game design.) There's also the fact that it's quite easy to have a die fall off the table, which means you either fall behind trying to get it back, or everyone needs to pause their gameplay while you collect your die again. Silas really brought the average down on this, but we weren't overly thrilled with it either, so, probably gonna donate this one.

4. Azul - (avg score 8.5) - such a beautiful game. The tiles are like little ceramic starburst candies, but it's all about getting patterns of these tiles and placing them on your board. It's got a near perfect mixture of luck and strategy going on, and I really REALLY like the pieces. 

5. Back to the Future Back in Time - (avg score 1) - We didn't actually finish this cooperative game based on the Back to the Future movie. This game is HARD, yo. Some would say (some being us, for example) that it's completely unfairly balanced against you. The fact that Lorraine and George move EVERY turn, and the amount of tasks to take care of at once ...there's just no way. Also, the dice have too many Biff faces on them, making it WAY too likely that he'll demote the love meter, which is damn near impossible to get up into the "in love" range (let alone keeping it there). There were several moves where we attempted to knock Biff out or move the DeLorean, only for the entire attempt to be negated by bad dice rolls. And, I get it, luck is a part of the game, but jesus. This was frustrating to take one step forward and five steps back. After, we did look up other reviews, and we MIGHT give it another shot with a few 'house rules' put into place (if G&L get into the same space, the love meter goes up by one automatically, and we're also going to play with all 4 characters, to see if that helps) but if it goes poorly, then we might be donating this one too... Which is a pity. I really WANT to like this. I like BTTF, and I greatly enjoy the artwork in this. It's just...so unbalanced.

6. Bananagrams - (avg score 6.5) - basically scrabble without a board. Not a bad word game (I like the feeling of the tiles a great deal... they feel similar to the Azul tiles). I do think the possibility of running out of table space is a flaw, but it's not unforgiveable. We played this twice cuz the game goes pretty quick.

7. Battleship - (avg score 4.5) - it's a classic, but feels... a little bit outdated. And it's not a game where I'd be like, "oh, let's play Battleship!!" But, you know, it's fine. (I won, but just BARELY)

8. Blink - (avg score 6) - super quick card game where players have to quickly match cards based on patterns, colors, or number of designs. Me, Steph, and Harper played 3 (or 4?) quick rounds, and I didn't win a single one... I swear I used to be better at this game. 

And that's it for January!! :)