September 2020 roundup

In September, I managed to play 58 games of 35 different titles, although only 3 of them were new to me. The new games were:

== NEW GAMES ==

Marvel United – 6 plays –  8 
First Published 2020

I backed this on Kickstarter and the first instalment (the bulk of the pledge is due to arrive in March 2021) turned up a couple of weeks ago. I was quite impressed with this as a quick, light co-operative/solo superhero battle game. Each of the villains plays differently and the heroes all have slight differences in their decks so it’s going to be fun to mix and match combinations of heroes. The SHIELD solo mode smashes together three hero decks into a single deck but it also works nicely as a solo just playing two (or possibly more) heroes separately. Can’t wait for the rest to turn up and am a bit disappointed I didn’t go in for the Kickstarter expansions as there doesn’t now seem to be any way to add to your pledge.

Abandon All Artichokes – 1 play –  7 
First Published 2020

This is a very smart, family-style, deck deconstruction game, where you start with a deck of 10 artichokes and draw a hand of five. Then you acquire other vegetables to help you get rid of artichokes, with the aim of drawing a new hand of five containing no artichokes – which wins you the game. Easy to pick up, if you’ve played any deck building game before, and plays very quickly in about 15 minutes.

Infinity Gauntlet: A Love Letter Game – 1 play –  7 
First Published 2020

Using the Love Letter framework, Infinity Gauntlet pits one player as Thanos against everyone else, each trying to reduce the opposing side to zero health. Works pretty well and definitely stands on its own feet as a Marvel-themed variant but we all felt we’d rather stick to the original (or Batman).

== OTHER GAMES PLAYED THIS MONTH ==

6x My City
4x Pocket Golf
3x Exxtra
3x Shephy
2x Verflucht!
2x Noch Mal!
2x Kingdomino
2x Legendary: A Marvel Deck Building Game
2x Zero
2x Pandemic: Hot Zone – North America
1x HexRoller
1x Mandala
1x Thunderbirds
1x 13 Days: The Cuban Missile Crisis
1x Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle
1x Lux Aeterna
1x Powerships
1x Elder Sign
1x Scrabble
1x Piece o’ Cake
1x On Tour
1x Cartographers
1x Michael Strogoff
1x Freedom: The Underground Railroad
1x Twenty One
1x L.A.M.A.
1x The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
1x Eldritch Horror
1x Star Realms
1x Onirim
1x Finito!
1x Bandido

Jan and I are still working our way through My City and it’s developing nicely while the scores remain pretty close. Nice to get another Knizia, The hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug back to the table as well as a couple of longer games: Eldritch Horror and Freedom: The underground Railroad. I also managed to get in a four-round head-to-head challenge of Pocket Golf with another fan of the game over the weekend of the US Open, which was a lot of fun.

== YEAR SO FAR ==

549 games of 205 titles.
50 new to me.
2 x 27 plays; 1 x 23 plays; 2 x 15 plays; 2 x 14 plays; 1 x 13 plays; 2 x 10 plays; 1 x 9 plays; 6 x 7 plays; 3 x 6 plays, 4 x 5 plays; 8 x 4 plays; 30 x 3 plays; 27 x 2 plays; 116 x 1 play.

== STATE OF THE COLLECTION ==

I added 5 new titles to the collection which were Marvel United, Q.E., Marrying Mr Darcy, Infinity Gauntlet: A Love Letter Game and Abandon All Artichokes. I also sold 7 titles so my total collection stands at 699.

I now have 2 unplayed games (zero at the start of the month) and my Game of the Month was Marvel United.