Waffle Wednesdays - August 2023 Roundup

by Rachel

It's September 13th and that means that it's well past time to wrap up August! I'm only half a month late... :whistle:

Anyway...



BGA/online multiplayer:
[BGCOLOR=#99FFFF] 7.5 [/BGCOLOR]  Splendor x2 (8 all-time)
[BGCOLOR=#66FF99] 8.5 [/BGCOLOR]  Look at the Stars x15 (29 all-time)
[BGCOLOR=#99FFFF] 7.0 [/BGCOLOR]  Jaipur (17 all-time)
[BGCOLOR=#9999FF] 6.5 [/BGCOLOR]  Incan Gold x6 (38 all-time)
[BGCOLOR=#99FFFF] 7.0 [/BGCOLOR]  Spots x7 (20 all-time)
[BGCOLOR=#99FFFF] 7.5 [/BGCOLOR]  Quetzal x4 (28 all-time)
[BGCOLOR=#99FFFF] 7.0 [/BGCOLOR]  Lucky Numbers x5 (43 all-time)
[BGCOLOR=#66FF99] 8.5 [/BGCOLOR]  Gizmos x14 (24 all-time)
[BGCOLOR=#99FFFF] 7.0 [/BGCOLOR]  Zooloretto x4 (25 all-time)
[BGCOLOR=#9999FF] 6.5 [/BGCOLOR]  Applejack x5 (14 all-time)
[BGCOLOR=#9999FF] 6.0 [/BGCOLOR]  Bunny Kingdom x5 (8 all-time)
[BGCOLOR=#99FFFF] 7.0 [/BGCOLOR]  Tranquility x3 (19 all-time)
[BGCOLOR=#99FFFF] 7.0 [/BGCOLOR]  Tokaido x2 (108 all-time)
[BGCOLOR=#A3A3A3] N/A [/BGCOLOR]  Next Station: TokyoNEW!
[BGCOLOR=#99FFFF] 7.5 [/BGCOLOR]  Azul x3 (28 all-time)
[BGCOLOR=#A3A3A3] N/A [/BGCOLOR]  Next Station: London x2 NEW!
[BGCOLOR=#66FF99] 8.5 [/BGCOLOR]  Just Desserts x2 (36 all-time)
[BGCOLOR=#99FFFF] 7.0 [/BGCOLOR]  Coloretto x4 NEW!
[BGCOLOR=#33CC99] 9.0 [/BGCOLOR]  Can't Stop x9 (237 all-time)
[BGCOLOR=#99FFFF] 7.0 [/BGCOLOR]  boop. x3 (18 all-time)
[BGCOLOR=#9999FF] 6.5 [/BGCOLOR]  Battle Sheep x3 (53 all-time)
[BGCOLOR=#99FFFF] 7.0 [/BGCOLOR]  Alhambra x2 (7 all-time)
[BGCOLOR=#66FF99] 8.0 [/BGCOLOR]  Potion Explosion x8 (28 all-time)
[BGCOLOR=#99FFFF] 7.5 [/BGCOLOR]  The King's Guild x2 (36 all-time)
[BGCOLOR=#99FFFF] 7.5 [/BGCOLOR]  Conspiracy: Abyss Universe (54 all-time)
[BGCOLOR=#9999FF] 6.0 [/BGCOLOR]  Shifting Stones (30 all-time)
[BGCOLOR=#66FF99] 8.0 [/BGCOLOR]  Sagani x15** NEW!
[BGCOLOR=#66FF99] 8.0 [/BGCOLOR]  Nova Luna x2 (19 all-time)
[BGCOLOR=#A3A3A3] N/A [/BGCOLOR]  7 Wonders x3 NEW!
[BGCOLOR=#9999FF] 6.5 [/BGCOLOR]  Tranquility: The Ascent x2 (23 all-time)
[BGCOLOR=#9999FF] 6.5 [/BGCOLOR]  Abandon All Artichokes (48 all-time)
[BGCOLOR=#66FF99] 8.0 [/BGCOLOR]  Dragonheart (28 all-time)
[BGCOLOR=#00CC00] 10. [/BGCOLOR]  Forest Shuffle x12 NEW!
[BGCOLOR=#A3A3A3] N/A [/BGCOLOR]  Boxes (3 all-time)***
[BGCOLOR=#A3A3A3] N/A [/BGCOLOR]  Sea Salt & Paper (8 all-time)
[BGCOLOR=#A3A3A3] N/A [/BGCOLOR]  Cucco 21NEW!
[BGCOLOR=#A3A3A3] N/A [/BGCOLOR]  Viticulture Essential EditionNEW!
[BGCOLOR=#A3A3A3] N/A [/BGCOLOR]  Lost Seas (5 all-time)
[BGCOLOR=#99FFFF] 7.0 [/BGCOLOR]  Bubblee Pop (37 all-time)
[BGCOLOR=#A3A3A3] N/A [/BGCOLOR]  Stone AgeNEW!

Steam/two-player:
[BGCOLOR=#00CC00] 10. [/BGCOLOR]  Ascension: Deckbuilding Game x6 (883 all-time)

Steam/app/online implementation/solo:
[BGCOLOR=#66FF99] 8.5 [/BGCOLOR]  Cascadia (55 all-time)

IRL solo and/or with Mom:
[BGCOLOR=#A3A3A3] N/A [/BGCOLOR]  Unpublished Prototype x23 (127 all-time)
[BGCOLOR=#66FF99] 8.5 [/BGCOLOR]  Ex Libris (16 all-time)
[BGCOLOR=#66FF99] 8.5 [/BGCOLOR]  Elder Sign x2 (24 all-time)
[BGCOLOR=#A3A3A3] N/A [/BGCOLOR]  Criss Cross x2 (6 all-time)
[BGCOLOR=#33CC99] 9.0 [/BGCOLOR]  Cartographers (14 all-time)
[BGCOLOR=#66FF99] 8.5 [/BGCOLOR]  Friday x4 (171 all-time)
[BGCOLOR=#9999FF] 6.0 [/BGCOLOR]  Rolling America (24 all-time)
[BGCOLOR=#33CC99] 9.5 [/BGCOLOR]  Orchard: A 9 card solitaire game x2 (88 all-time)
[BGCOLOR=#33CC99] 9.0 [/BGCOLOR]  Herbaceous (81 all-time)
[BGCOLOR=#00CC00] 10. [/BGCOLOR]   FUSE x6 (174 all-time)
[BGCOLOR=#99FFFF] 7.0 [/BGCOLOR]  Crumbs!: The Sandwich Filler Game (7 all-time)
[BGCOLOR=#A3A3A3] N/A [/BGCOLOR]  Catan Dice GameNEW!
[BGCOLOR=#9999FF] 6.5 [/BGCOLOR]  The Abandons (6 all-time)

That's 210 total plays from 58* different games.
*Unpublished Prototype for August 2023 actually corresponds to 4 different games.
**Some BGA plays of Sagani were solo
*** Boxes is certainly not a new-to-me play, let's just call this a logging anomaly :p.

August saw my highest number of plays in a month for 2023 (so far). For better or for worse, most of these were online via Board Game Arena...

Standouts of the month included Forest Shuffle, which I've completely fallen in love with, continuing my Elder Sign campaign (check out my Mythic Monday posts!), and logging my very first plays of FUSE on Elite difficulty. Crumbs!: The Sandwich Filler Game's Kickstarter was another highlight. Congrats to J. Antscherl and Minerva Tabletop Games on a successful campaign! I also learned a lot of new-to-me games including Sagani, Stone Age, and Viticulture Essential Edition. The last two remind me of Quetzal, which I actually discovered first :p. They're fun, but I actually kinda like Quetzal better :whistle:. *ducks*. I also taught Can't Stop to a friend who likes Spots, and now, we have another push-your-luck game to play together on BGA.

My biggest regrets are pretty close to the same regrets that I expressed at the end of July: 1) not playing more physical games/IRL plays and 2) not keeping up with GMT projects.

However, August/early September did see me make up a lot of ground where my own designs are concerned. The dumpster deckbox for Bears love Bows is complete andavailable. Read the Runes made it to "components-ready" and has been entered in the 2023 Solitaire Print and Play Contest. Eight Elephants went from title and vague idea to "components-ready" WIP thread and is now officially entered in the 54-Card Contest. The Minutes to Midnight series is rolling along with its own little stub of an "ideas phase"[WIP] 10 Minutes to Midnight (game) and Minutes to Midnight (series) that (for now) it shares with the 10 Minutes to Midnight game. I'm a few days away from formally entering Barricade Brigade in the 2023 Wargame Print and Play Game Design Contest. And Color(a)Cross might actually get done in time to join the fun of the 15th Roll and Write Contest (we'll see on that last, the game had a bit of an identity crisis this morning...).

To sum things up, I've made adequate progress, but I still haven't quite struck the right balance between online plays, BGG time, blogging, official projects, and my own designs. To keep the ball rolling, my (rest of) September goals include: 1) getting Barricade Brigade components-ready and entered into the 2023 Wargame Print and Play Game Design Contest, 2) finally completing my first draft of the boardgame-centric article I've been preparing for a certain website, and 3) finally, finally catching up on GMT projects. Sounds like a busy, but somewhat reasonable rest of September :D, right?

Happy Wednesday and happy playing!
-Rachel

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