I Would Play 100 Times... And I Would Play 100 More (updated)

So... Facebook reminded me this morning that the original version of this post was 12 years old. I figured it was the perfect time to dust it off and update it for late 2021.

The Proclaimers are referenced here because (a) they're cool, (b) they make a lovely musical soundtrack for reading my blog, (c) the song reminds me of how much I love my wife, and (d) it inspired the title of this post. (As a special treat, I've linked to the video of this wonderful song at the bottom of the post!)

Twelve years ago, I taught Braeden to play Carcassonne... and when I entered the play into my database at the Geek, I realized that it was my 100th game of Carc. That got me wondering - what other games had I played that many times?

I noted that "the list is smaller than you'd think, based on my life long obsession with board games, but I've only been tracking game play since the middle of 1998 in an over-the-top OCD-ish spreadsheet kind of way." The list included:

• Race for the Galaxy
• StreetSoccer
• Lost Cities
• Catan
• Carcassonne

And two "almost 100" games:

• Can't Stop
  
• Memoir '44

In the intervening 12 years, things have changed a bit - in other words, we've gone from 5 to 14 different games that I've played 100 times.

• Race for the Galaxy - 477 plays
• And that doesn't count the 1000+ plays of against Keldon's AI on PC for years and now on the excellent Race for the Galaxy iPad app.
• Memoir '44 - 210 plays
• My sons have been my main opponents over the years... but there's been a whole lot of Overlord games as well.
• Summoner Wars (1st edition) - 208 plays
• Again, head to head battles with my sons... and yes, I have played the 2nd edition and it's very good.
• StreetSoccer - 178 plays
• Still one of my favorite quick two-player games.
• Can't Stop - 169 plays
• A family favorite... we actually own two copies of this because Shari used to use it in her classroom when she taught junior high math.
• Catan - 149 plays
• This doesn't count all of the stand-alone Catan games... if I add in those, it's actually 191.
• Star Realms - 145 plays
• Again, this doesn't count innumerable plays against the very well-made app.
• Ticket to Ride - 143 plays
• And this doesn't count the small box Ticket to Ride games, which would add another 20 to the total.
• Lost Cities - 134 plays
• Another great two-player game.
• DC Comics Deck-Building Game - 131 plays
• Both my sons and my long-time regular gaming group love this game.
• Fast Food Franchise - 115 plays
• We keep introducing our lovingly beat-up copy to new folks... and they keep asking where they can find their own copy. And then I have to talk about the sadness of OOP games.
• Heroscape - 114 plays
• In 2013, I moved away from my perfect Heroscape game room... or this number would be a LOT bigger.
• Sentinels of the Multiverse - 112 plays
• Another favorite of my sons... and my game group. Our last battle against Grand Warlord Voss took place over Thanksgiving weekend.
• Carcassonne - 104 plays
• I've slowed way down - but it's still a really good game.

Honorable mentions (aka "close to 100")...

• 7 Wonders - 97 plays
• The City - 96 plays
• Unmatched: Battle of Legends - 93 plays
• Fill or Bust - 92 plays
• Jump Drive - 92 plays