Will M. Baker: Ten-for-Ten

Partly inspired by many lists on this site last year, my friend Eli and I decided that for 2009 we would select ten games to play together ten times each. This resolution followed hot on the heels of having played about thirty different games once each, and Eli commenting that it felt a bit like speed-dating, never being given the opportunity to really get to know a game. So our objective (other than reaching the requisite number of plays) was to build familiarity with the game so that we were well past needing to learn the rules and could just dive in to the fun.

We were fairly fluid in our game selection. We didn’t pick all ten games right away, and some games originally on the list were eventually pushed aside by other games we wanted to play more.

Games that got booted from the list:

• Knights (6 plays) – This game works well with two players, but it began to wear on me. There’s no sense of coming into the game with a particular strategy, and the dice-rolling, though fun, can become a bit monotonous.

• Hey! That’s My Fish! (5 plays) – A great game that always presents interesting choices, but it’s a bit of a brain burner, and we found ourselves not wanting to get too abstract.

• Aquadukt (5 plays) – A lot of fun with two players. The roll of the die keeps the tile placement varied, as does the placement of mountains. But, alas, Eli played this game quite a bit while away on a trip and returned burned out on it.

• Torres (4 plays) – An incredible game, with mind-bending choices on every turn. It fell off our Ten-for-Ten list because of its static beginning and brain-burning choices that left us exhausted.

• Stone Age (4 plays) – A heavy contender for the list, but we found it emotionally similar to Agricola, so we went with the latter. I’m looking forward to more plays of this title.

• Race for the Galaxy (Feb. 2)
Will: 8.1
Eli: 7.9

This game is constantly fresh. A player’s starting hand provides a unique departure point and impetus for strategy. The games play quickly, play differently, and are satisfying even in loss. We blew past our goal with this one, playing it 28 times.

Several months passed before we achieved another Ten-for-Ten, partly due to false starts with other games that were eventually dropped from the list, and partly because we were still working toward another (less fun) goal of playing each unplayed game in my collection. (Suffice it to say that most of those games had remained unplayed for a reason.)

• Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers (May 13)
Will: 10
Eli: 9.5

We played this mostly with two or three players, Eli’s girlfriend Melissa being the third. Little set-up time, simple scoring, beautiful components. The tone of the game can change quickly, from isolated ventures to cut-throat invasions of another player’s meadow. The inclusion of bonus tiles and fishing huts helps ensure that players are always watching each other closely for quick scoring opportunities. 14 total plays.

• Dominion (May 26)
Will: 8.5
Eli: 8.7

A round of Dominion goes by so quickly that it was often my turn again by the time I had refreshed my hand. I can think of no other turn-based game with so little downtime. Two things initially hampered us: We were overwhelmed by the possible choices inherent in ten available Kingdom cards, and we found we would often mirror each other’s purchasing strategy, just to keep up with the Joneses. So, early on, we switched to having five random Kingdom cards uniquely available to each player. This meant we could not mirror each other, and we were challenged with finding a workable strategy from this restricted sub-set. For us, this propelled the game into greatness. 22 total plays.

• Star Wars: Episode I – Customizable Card Game (May 26)
Will: 5.8
Eli: 6.4

Okay, yes, we were slumming a bit. This game is in no way great. It has few choices, and most of them are obvious. It’s almost entirely luck-based. There’s too little variety in the cards to have motivated us to explore the “customizable” aspect of the game, so we just played with the pre-constructed decks. Why is it on this list? Well, it plays very quickly, so we were able to fit it in between plays of longer games, and its simplicity gave our brains a rest. For me, the game also came close to scratching my itch to play the Star Wars: Customizable Card Game again. The two games really have only one thing in common – drawing destiny – but that’s the part I most enjoyed about SW:CCG, and this game could deliver on that front in ten minutes or less. I only feel a little shame for including this.

• Pecking Order (May 29)
Will: 7.5
Eli: 7.7

Another short game but genuinely fun. It has a bit of Schotten Totten in it, with players having to wisely budget the placement of their cards and decide which perches are worth contending. The bluff aspect is fun, as is sacrificing a card to discover the identity of the opposing card.

Another dry spell. Four of the next five games didn’t make it onto our list until after the completion of Pecking Order, so in a sense it was like starting back at zero. It’s during this time that games like Aquadukt and Torres were finally abandoned. With our Ten-for-Ten completion rate slackening, there was the first twinge of fear that we might not meet the goal – but like heroes, we pressed onward.

• Guillotine (Oct. 22)
Will: 8.9
Eli: 8.4

This is one of the first imported games I ever played, almost ten years ago. Although it was fun then, my gaming journey has taken me on a path that made me dismiss Guillotine as silly and chaotic, so I hadn’t played for nearly nine years. But what finally earned it a place on the Ten-for-Ten list is that it works really well with just two players. This minimizes the chaos and politics. Several action cards are quite aggressive, but for the most part the game boils down to cleverly extracting the most valuable nobles from the line-up. The varied line-up and hand of action cards keep the game fresh each time, and even with three rounds the game plays quickly. I’ve had such a positive experience playing this with two players, I would hesitate to play with more.

• Agricola (Oct. 23)
Will: 8.7
Eli: 9.5

A titan cometh. I finally gave in to the hype and gave this game a try, despite suspecting that it would be too much of a brain-burner for me. I typically don’t like games that have complex production systems, tech trees, or limited luck. But I was quite pleased with Agricola. Most of our plays were three-player with the basic deck, and all took place within a two-month window.

This game is simply brutal. From the first turn, it already feels like the game is almost over and that I haven’t a hope of feeding my family; there will never be enough time to do all the things I want to do! There are certainly a lot of choices, but having a hand of Occupation and Improvement cards helps guide my strategy, as do the actions of my opponents, which close off some options and force me down other paths. Each game left us exhausted, like we’d been dragged through the coals, yet we were ready for more. Interestingly, each of us always scored higher in a three-player game than any of us did in a two-player game. This might be because of the addition of the four action cards (I think we used the family-friendly side), or because we were challenged to do better.

• Blue Moon (Nov. 7)
Will: 7.0
Eli: 8.7

I’ve never been a fan of this game (partly because I’m not very competent at it), but I had most of the different decks in my collection, so we chugged away at it all year long, trying different combinations. The cards are beautiful, so I had something to look at while Eli ground me into dust.

• Yspahan (Dec. 12)
Will: 10
Eli: 7.4

I had played this game only once prior to Ten-for-Ten. We played about half our games with two players, half with three players; the game works quite well with both numbers. Like Agricola, it seems nearly finished right from the onset. The dice keep things fresh, and despite the dwindling options available to the third player, there are still always workable choices. There wasn’t quite enough variety to keep it interesting for Eli, but we managed to hammer out our final play.

• Galaxy Trucker (Dec. 12)
Will: 9.8
Eli: 9.1

And finally, on the same day that saw Yspahan checked off the list, so too fell Galaxy Trucker. What an amazing game. This game took us six months to play ten times, partly because the three similar rounds and high tension left us quite spent after each playing.

It’s rare to find a game with so immersive a theme. Each round I feel emotionally invested in my tiny spacecraft, and have no trouble personifying my ship’s dwindling, terrified crew as the last battery pack has been consumed, leaving our shields and cannons inert for the impending pirate raid. We played all ten games with three players, and celebrated our last two games by introducing New Technology, New Ship Classes, and Bonus Cards. This is one of those rare games that gifts its players with stories to tell afterward.

So we met our quota, but also fulfilled our goal of becoming more deeply familiar with a few great games. For at least half the games on this list we were still discovering strategies and nuances even on our final play. I expect that each of the more substantial games on the list will remain in my repertoire for years to come.

The challenge has also had the unintended effect of making me reevaluate my collection as a whole. Many of my gaming friends long ago turned a critical eye toward the size of their collections, and I now find myself doing the same and judging my own collection bloated. A large number of titles lends itself toward variety and flexibility, both good things. Nonetheless, in 2010 I think I’ll try to shed some game pounds so that eventually I can look at my collection and be excited to play every game in it.

Ten-for-Ten was a goal for the sake of the journey, and as such made for a great gaming year. Along our journey, we gamed together 78 times, giving 123 different games 312 plays. Happy gaming to all!

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