Reducing my Shelf of Shame

One of my goals at the start of this year was to reduce my "Shelf of Shame". This self-deprecating tongue-in-cheek term is used by board game aficionados to refer to the board games they have purchased but haven't played yet. At the start of this year, of the 62 base games I own, I had only played 36 of them. Thankfully, I had the opportunity to reduce it. In a recent game night, I brought out Notre Dame. It's a relatively fast board game to play but it took a while to explain the game mechanics. There was some initial confusion about how to perform the different actions but once people understood it and got the hang of it, everyone started playing much more quickly. I actually quite enjoyed this game and it looks really nice too. 

Notre Dame Board Game

The other game that I finally got to play is Foodies, which is quite easy to teach and to play. It's great for casual gamers or if you're looking to play something that can be done in half an hour or less. That said, when I taught and played this game with my friends, I realized I made a mistake: we used the wrong side of the board, making it just a bit more difficult for the first player (in this case, me) to purchase cards during the first turn. That is my excuse as to why I didn't win haha.

I also got to play a couple of my board games that I had previously only played once. The first of these is Champions of Midgard. I played this once before the pandemic and this year, I have gotten to play it twice already. I really enjoy the mechanics of this game, especially when your warriors go into battle against Monsters, Trolls, and Draugr. The next game I got to play again is Tapestry. This is another game I really love, not just because of its beautiful game elements, but also because of the variety of actions you can take.

I've also gotten to play a few new board games that my friends have brought to game nights. One of these is The Lost Ruins of Arnak. It took me a while to figure out how to play it and I thought I wasn't doing well initially but it turned out that I made a lot of good moves and in the end, I won by a narrow margin. I really enjoyed this game and I hope I can play it again soon.

I also finally played the Tuscany Expansion of Viticulture. My friend JM had been wanting to play this expansion with us since before the pandemic but the one time it hit the table, I was playing another game with other people in the group and JM had to leave early so they didn't finish the game. This time around, we managed to finish the game. There are some pretty big twists in playing this game, including having a worker that can be placed in a previous season or how workers of a certain player are cleared immediately from the board once that player has passed (this opens up spaces that may have previously been occupied). I ended up winning this game by a relatively comfortable margin. Cool!

Viticulture Tuscany Expansion

There are so many other games I've played, including Citadels (I don't particularly think this game is meant to be funny but it was absolutely hilarious when we played it haha) and a really cool game called Role Player where you kinda build your own character. I'm just really happy that the world is starting to get back to the normal we had pre-pandemic and I am now getting to enjoy playing board games again. Hopefully I can reduce my shelf of shame just a bit more before the year ends.