This is my contribution to the The Five & Dime Report - 2010 Edition. In 2010 I played 50 different games a combined total of 235 times.
Dimes
- Dominion (22)
- Now technically I ought to include all of the expansions along with this base game, which would bring the total to 53, but I prefer to record it under the set which played the most significant role in the game.
- Cribbage (15)
- Of these plays probably 2 or 3 were proper competitive games against one or more live opponents. Many were solitary games on my iPhone, others were cooperative games, which are great fun but much shorter than traditional Cribbage.
- Dominion: Prosperity (15)
- This is the latest expansion and by far the greatest. If you own the base game and are trying to decide which expansion to get, this is the one.
- Race for the Galaxy (11)
- I haven't found a live opponent for this one. It's a brilliant game, but the learning curve is a real bitch. I just play it on my netbook against AI.
- Ca$h 'n Gun$ (10)
- A party game, with guns!
- Snow Tails (10)
- A crazy little race game, best played fast and reckless, have to try it with a timer sometime.
- Sorry! Sliders (10)
- Bowling in miniature, fun dexterity game.
- Tales of the Arabian Nights (10)
- This is easily the game with the longest playtime on this list, but made the list because I lugged this enormously heavy game to Ireland and Maine.
Nickels
- Dominion: Alchemy (8)
- The only expansion I don't own. But it's still good, it is Dominion after all.
- Dominion: Seaside (8)
- I still haven't mastered the multi-turn combinations this expansion enables, need to play it some more.
- Guillotine (8)
- Nice light game of chopping off heads.
- Zombie Dice (7)
- This one's probably under-reported. It's a simple little craps/blackjack style press your luck game, only own it on my iPhone I'm afraid.
- Forbidden Island (6)
- Wow, got this one for Christmas and it's already made the list. Maybe a little easy, but it plays fast and is probably the best introduction to cooperative games.
- Small World (6)
- It's rare that a light war game plays equally well during a lunch hour and at home with my girlfriend, but this one hits the spot. And there are even a couple expansions out that we don't own yet.
- Catacombs (5)
- A dungeon crawl dexterity game, this one is ready for some custom scenarios and I hope they come out with an expansion.
- Dungeons & Dragons: Castle Ravenloft Board Game (5)
- Loving the trend of packing more game into less time, this is a D&D style dungeon crawl that plays in about an hour. And I've only played the first couple adventures...
- Formula D (5)
- I don't know how the game designers did it, but every time we play this game the person who is in the lead midway through the race gets passed in the last corner. You'd think there would be runaway leader problems without any obvious built in catch-up mechanisms like Snow Tales, but there aren't.
- Prophecy (5)
- A fantasy adventure game somewhere between the pure storytelling of Arabian Nights, and the other dungeon crawl games. We've modified the rules to make it play faster and reduce the role of luck. This is a slightly older game, pre-dating the trend towards shorter play times.
Honorable Mentions
These games are among my favorites and should have made the cut.
- Citadels (4)
- Nice easy game to teach, but once you get into it one of those head games where you're trying to anticipate what other players are thinking. The meta game is constantly evolving as the group gets better at playing.
- Fairy Tale (4)
- Like Citadels this also has a card drafting element, but without the down time as you're waiting for other players to pick their roles. Hard to say which one I like more, though this one is slightly less torturous on the brain-part.
