Challenge for 2017: 5 x 5

Is it time for a new challenge? Superfly’s 10 x 10 was very ambitious, but I’m wondering if we could get more folks to bite if we made it a 5 x 5 with the added stipulation of listing no game from the past three years. Killing the cult of the new should be more about bringing old games off of the shelf, not just pounding them into the ground.

Personally, the 10 x 10 helped me clear away some games that (after a few plays) I realized that I didn’t want to play them 10 times in 2016 or in what remains of my life.

Yeah, the 10 x 10 challenge made me realise that I haven't played my games as much as I thought I did. Plus playing a game 10 times is a lot, it really makes me question anyone who criticizes the "limited" amount of plays from a Legacy game.

Let's see how this goes:

1) Cave Evil (2011)

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2) Chaos in the Old World (2009)

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3) Gears of War (2011)

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4) Lord of the Rings: Confrontation (2005)

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5) Rune Age (2011)

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I am already doing a modified 10x10. For me the problem with a 10x10 is that I have a very COTN group and can't convince them to play games multiple times. So my pal Matt and I are doing 10x10x2. We took turns picking games that play 2, which we wouldn't mind playing multiple times. So we don't have to depend on a lot of others.
Here is the list .

For those that don't want to click through:
Mottainai
Neuroshima Hex
Impulse
51st State Master Set
Tash-Kalar
Theseus
13 Days
Blood Bowl Team Manager
2 de Mayo
Death Angel

Nah - not for me. I get few gaming opportunities as it is and we have a great set of games, most recent, that we like to play plus being only three of us the game selection is limited. So you guys have fun but I will be spending this precious time playing games based on fun and enjoyment rather than how much dust is on it.

1. Game of Thrones (2nd Ed) [1/5]
2. Napoleon’s Triumph [1/5]
3. Struggle of Empires [4/5]
4. Dune [1/5]
5. Amateurs to Arms [1/5]

This should be interesting. I have no three player games listed since my only qualifying game would be Maria which will be played five times regardless, because it’s the BEST FUCKING GAME EVAH! Still, my reasoning is that Dune is actually playable at 5, Struggle is good at 5 or 7 and GoT needs six to shine. From now on, if I have six, it’s GoT. I’m not even putting Dune forth as an option. For 2 players I have Napoleon’s Triumph, and Amateurs to Arms which is a really bitchin’ 1812 CDG wargame. There are a lot of decisions and operations. The first couple plays are really dizzying and end game scoring isn’t particularly elegant, but the scope from naval race, to promoting generals and battles/sieges made the game really fun.

1. Robinson Crusoe
2. Duel of Ages
3. Prince of Chaos
4. Eastfront
5. Pax Pamir

Edit: some of these are new but I don't care because I don't have that many games on my shelf.

1. Combat Commander: Europe
2. Combat Commander: Mediterranean
3. Combat Commander: Resistance
4. Combat Commander: Pacific
5. Combat Commander: RSG / C3i / BP 1-2-3-4-5-6-7

Its possible I'll swap out Pacific and BP4 and count RSG in one slot and BP1,2,3,5,6,7 with the C3i stuff as the other.

Easy, especially at the current rate of 2 F2F games per week with VASSAL on top.

(cheap add: Tigris & Euphrates, El Grande, Medici which we play every week at work).

Hey, this is do-able

1. Here I Stand
2. Tichu
3. Tigris & Euphrates
4. Lord of the Rings
5. Successors

2016 saw 0 plays of Here I Stand, which is a yearly low for me since I think I've played anywhere from two to eight times a year since first learning this game in 2008. Part of that was due to Monday night group flaming out a bit and also summertime weekends smartly not being spent playing an all day game and a few other things taking up the winter/early spring weekend slots(new COIN, Churchill). We should be getting a couple of those kickstarter boardgame tables soon, which will mean we can bust out long games on the weekly game night and just play over 2-3 weeks. I used to play a ton of Tichu and that died out when I moved away from my last game group. It was typically our game night closer or came up at other random times when hanging out. I just need to get some new regulars "trained up" on it. T&E is obviously the best euro and is how I measure time spent playing other games. "Oh, we just spent 3 hours playing this spreadsheet optimization game, but we could have played 3 games of T&E instead"... yes, obnoxious.
I play Lord of the Rings once in awhile, but have both Sauron and Friends & Foes expansion that haven't been tapped yet. So I would like to finally explore those. Successors is my long 4 player game of choice. I probably like Friedrich a little better but Unicron will make me play Maria a billion times so don't need to play that many games from the same system.

1. Puerto Rico - Bought it years ago, played it once. Willing to give it five goes - 0/5
2. Dune- It has been too long since I last played for the Spice. It will hit the table a couple times this year. - 0/5
3. Through the Desert - Owned to for years, played it a couple times. Need to get it to the table or tradepile - 1/5
4. Formula De - I have not played it in a decade, but I also did not own a copy until this summer. - 3/5
5. The Fantasy Trip/Dark City Games - I have two new to me DCG campaigns that I need to play through. - 5/5

2/7 update
Two runs of each DCG campaign I have:
Islands of Lost Spells
Upon the Wind
And a run at the apparent classic Death Test of the Thorsz

For those not familiar, in the microgame era there was a standout light rpg called Melee. It was expanded with Wizard and eventually became The Fantasy Trip. It was a simple, fast, tristat system using chits and hexes. Easy to learn, a blast to play. Sadly TFT died out in the 80s. In the early 2000s we were blessed with Heroscape which sparked some people to get back into TFT, which is how I learned about it. Since Steve Jackson will never reprint the original series, a new company has risen up and releases campaigns for a TFT like system called Dark City Games. For $13+shipping, you get a baggy with a choose your own adventure styled campaign book, with maps and a sheet of chits you have to cut out. Coupling it with scratch paper and some dice and you have a solid night of gaming ahead of you. Though I played each of the DCG campaigns both solo and coop, I feel they are better as solo affairs or in an RPG setting. Having a player reading all the elements and playing the enemies gets awkward, but I can see doing it with a DM easily. Death Test of Thorsz is known to be a meat grinder, and if you can get past the third room (commonly called the bear room), you are doing well. Well we didnt get past the second room that was full of spiders...

Despite my misgiving about not having a DM, my wife loved playing an RPG that didnt take six months for something to happen in. So we are trying a full party in the near future.

Okay, this I can do.

1. Steam
2. Band of Brothers
3. Castles of Burgundy
4. Descent
5. Runewars

Ok. I hope I can do this, here's my preliminary list. I do like this as an achievable goal vs. 10 for longer games.

1) Argent
2) Star Wars Armada
3) Comancheria
4) Eldritch Horror
5) Star Trek Ascendancy (toughest one)

1) Rex
2) Age of Sigmar
3) Twilight Struggle (cheating, since I'm playing on the Ipad)
4) Netrunner Legacy (whatever the official name is)
5) Lord of the Rings, LCG (I want to do the books campaign at some point)

As an aside, I would like to get at least one game of Dune (recognizing that 5 is an impossibility) and maybe a couple games of BSG.

I can put digital versions of board games?! This changes everything if so.

Update: Almost done with one of them!

1) Argent
0
2) Star Wars Armada
0
3) Comancheria
0
4) Eldritch Horror
x4
5) Star Trek Ascendancy (toughest one)
0

I still think I can do the others but I'll never get Star Trek done.

Late start, but here's my list. I'm still going for 10 games, but 5 plays will be enough; my 2016 10x10 crashed and burned.

Battlelore 2E
Descent 2E
Mage Knight
X-Wing
Dreamblade
Viceroy
Race for the Galaxy
Concordia
Orleans
Bora Bora