Half-Year Gaming Report, 2022

Another year is already half-way over! Can you believe it? …I guess with everything that’s happened since January 1 (Pandemic! War! Inflation! Supreme Court!) I should be surprised we haven’t filled the history books for three years yet. In these historic times, it’s nice to take on different perspectives, learn from the past or at least get away from the present with the tried-and-true method of (historical) board gaming. Here’s what I did so far this year – the numbers, the games I played most often or were otherwise remarkable, and how I stand in relation to my board gaming goals for 2022.

Board Game Geek War Game Top 60: #20-11

Welcome back to the fifth part of the series on the top 60 games in BoardGameGeek’s war game list! It’s the second-highest rung of the ladder, and there are truly some excellent games in here. Maybe even better than the top 10? You know the drill from the first, second, third, and fourth part – I give a few thoughts on each of the games, and then you add yours in the comments. Without further ado, here are games #20-11 of the list.

Farewell 2020 – Non-Historical Board Games

Sure, this blog is all about games and history. But in the end, most of us gamers are happy with whatever gaming we get to do (there are always more games we are interested in than opportunities to play), and this is especially true in this year of limited social interaction. So, without further ado, here are my top 3 non-historical games I played this year!

Farewell 2019 – New-to-Me Games

The year is coming to an end. I hope you had a good 2019 and could move some things in the directions that you wanted. One of the most enjoyable ways of that is to move wooden meeples, plastic miniatures, or cardboard counters over game boards, and I also hope you had a lot of good board gaming. While I am not the person who plays the most new games every year, I certainly play some that are new to me – and so I invite you to have a look at the games which I discovered this year which I enjoyed the most! Obviously, no „new-to-me“ post could be complete without a shoutout to the inventor of the concept, the venerable Cult of the New-to-Me Leader Dave! Check out his blog and subscribe for reviews on and news about board games (including excellent coverage of their digital versions!).
So, here are my top 3 new-to-me games of 2019:

SPIEL Essen 2019 Recap

After a break in 2018, I’ve been back to SPIEL in Essen this year – the largest board game fair in the world. I spent two days there, which, as I’m more and more convinced, is the ideal amount of time for me. I get to check out (almost) all games about which I am particularly interested. The only way I could see myself staying longer is if I went with a larger group and/or did some gaming in the evening after the fair.
I’m also content with the time planning – I had two pre-reserved games, went to two more first thing in the morning to secure a seat, and except for that, it was a mix of going to the booths of publishers/games I particularly wanted to visit and, especially late in the day, just strolling with open eyes and sitting down wherever there was an open table with an interesting-looking game.
As for the games themselves, it was a pity that two of my most anticipated games could not be played at the fair: Europe Divided (Chris Marling/David Thompson, Phalanx Games) did not get ready in time, Watergate (Matthias Cramer, Frosted Games) was apparently too old already – Frosted Games focused their play tables entirely on their new release Cooper Island (Andreas Odendahl, Frosted Games) and had the few-months-old Watergate only on their shelves for shopping.
As for shopping: I did in fact not buy a single game at the fair. When I think about how many great games I have at home which are not played often enough, a new game must be something really special. One game, however, came close (see below).