Review - 2021

1st January 2022 (Saturday)

Year In Review:
2021 Review

This Year Was… … :

The Year of Pivoting. In the right hands, pivoting is not only beneficial but necessary to ensure that one stays on course towards the ultimate destination. And then there are those who pivot because the wrong person is in charge (the wrong person being anyone but themselves) and the promises of power, wealth & ignorance of past, present & future wrongdoing causes others to flock to their "righteous, justified" change, when what really happens after the dust settles is "Avé! Bossa Nova! Similis Bossa Seneca!". Then of course there is the traditional reason for pivoting, I learned the term "CYA" from my time in corporate offices which meant cover-your-a**, and CYA causes more pivoting than Josh Smith who "pivoted" 25 steps without a foul call (I promise that this will be the only sports metaphor this year). I am no stranger to change, as can be seen in the most recent years in review, but this year was just a lot of pivoting back & forth and like many others who experience such turmoil, it rarely is a result of their own doing. Being the dirty laundry in the washing machine that spins and spins but ultimately goes nowhere, I come to realize that most people, most people just want their tomorrow to be the same as today.

"They think they want good government and justice for all, Vimes, yet what is it they really crave, deep in their hearts? Only that things go on as normal and tomorrow is pretty much like today." Lord Vetinari, Feet of Clay

Out of the nearly 200 sovereign nations in the world, more than 60 nations chose to pivot on their choice of head of state in the year of the COVID variants. In an attempt to try and wrest back some normalcy in our lives stricken by the New Normal, it seems passing strange that we keep looking to someone new to bring back stability into our lives. My nation is so adept at pivoting that we actually did it twice, once in the year of COVID & again in the year of COVID’s mutant babies & we may even be looking at the trifecta if we have general elections in what many memes are calling the year "twenty twenty too". Malaysia's leaders are much like the X Force, can’t seem to work together without sabotaging one another.

It’s a race between the boosters and the mutant virus babies

Interestingly, the best the United Nations could come up with to describe 2021 was "The Year of Fruits and Vegetables". So many missed opportunities… "Release the Krarantined", "Let’s Do All the Sports", "Give Me A Double", "Where My Delivery At?", "Space… The New Travel Destination", "I’m Working From Home So Why Am I Working More?" and so on and so forth. So that was our world in a nutshell, an invisible war between humankind and a virus that upgrades itself and somehow scientists think that it was a great idea to give each iteration a Transformers sounding name that makes it sound cool.

Coming soon to a theater near you

Apart from the degeneration of the federal government to a game of musical chairs, Malaysia as a nation… had to survive floods, "DidikTV" (educational TV), the long drawn out political crisis that took us through July - September and finally dealing with the floods again, which is bad enough when people have to seek refuge on top of the roofs of their houses that are totally immersed in water, but worse when help doesn’t come because federal and state governments belong on the wrong sides of the divide.

I grew up in this little town of Taman Sri Muda, when floods were an annual Christmas time guest

In our little Jedi Training Academy, Padawan Minigeek managed to assimilate into her studies via force projection quite well. In order of proficiency, she did well in English, Mandarin, Geography, History, Numeracy & Science, with slight difficulty in mastering the Malay language. More importantly, Padawan Minigeek has developed her empathy & kindness for others, which is somewhat amazing given how she, more than anyone else in our home, has been confined within the four walls throughout this year. She is kinder to Padawan Babygeek, obedient with minimal mouthing back although now very protective of her room & heaven forbid that you mention she needs to get a haircut. As she grows older, the Jedi Master allowed Padawan Minigeek to gain some new experiences, this year she experienced her first online multiplayer game with Among Us (limited to games with her uncles & aunties), her first online play on Board Game Arena with my friends from church, her first love of Hayao Miyazaki classics, her first sleepover at her aunt’s place, a new obsession with contortionists and her first encounter with Harry Potter (limited to the first three books for now). Although a lot of her new experiences are within controlled circumstances, it has been challenging to curate Padawan Minigeek’s consumption on YouTube. She understands the type of content she is not allowed to see but has difficulty understanding why, as all Padawans are when they still lack wisdom. Still, although life has not been easy for Padawan Minigeek, she has borne up tremendously well this year and looking forward to going back to school next year.

Believe me I melted a little every night I found her asleep with an open book on her face

Padawan Babygeek crossed a major threshold this year, graduating from the younglings academy and looking forward to primary school next year. The younglings academy awarded Padawan Minigeek with a Most Improved award and the progress he has made in reading & numeracy has been somewhat amazing, given that most of his progress was made in only the latter half of the year when he was allowed back into the academy (Force projection training absolutely did not agree with Padawan Babygeek). We owe much to Jedi Master Gan who had the patience of a Bristlecone Pine Tree but was as unyielding as basalt as well with Padawan Babygeek. These days, if it has letters, Padawan Babygeek is going to read it out loud for you like a protocol droid. Unfortunately this was also an injury prone year for Padawan Babygeek, landing in the ER twice and a growth year as well, having to go to the dentist four times because he’s losing his milk teeth, making him look like a 70 year old pirate with missing teeth. Padawan Babygeek is still the random element in our family, bringing joyful havoc into our lives and leaving a messy trail of toys, books & stationeries wherever he goes. Quick to anger and quick to forget, our resident senior citizen still has many modules in personal responsibility to complete but has a natural talent in making people that he’s around come to an unknowing grin.

The closing of a chapter and the beginning of another

On the Mastery of boardgaming, I bring glad tidings on that front. Both Padawans demonstrated renewed passion to win all the boardgames (this appears to be a recurring theme discussed later), which began with a very intense three months of… Uno, at least 121 recorded plays of it and probably another hundred more unrecorded. I understood the appeal because ANYONE could win at Uno, in fact Padawan Minigeek won 54% of the time and even Padawan Babygeek won 26% of the time. So I participated in this three month madness, that’s how much I love the Padawans. But the dividends were great, Padawan Minigeek had 163 plays of 15 different boardgames & Padawan Babygeek had 107 plays of 18 different boardgames this year, enviable numbers that were way higher than mine in my initial years of the hobby. Padawan Minigeek’s new favourite game is actually Sushi Go Party!, taking over Padawan Babygeek’s favourite from last year. Whereas Padawan Minigeek’s favourite game is now Barenpark because of bears and monorails as well apparently. Affinity with animals appears to be Padawan Minigeek’s thing because of Barenpark, as well as his 100% winning streak in Wingspan (not kidding).

Uno... How is such a simple game so popular?

Teaching became the biggest time sink of my work schedule this year. Preparing lessons, assessments, marking and conducting extra classes was a daily cycle, now I know why teachers treasure the school holidays just as much as students do. I will be honest and say that I do enjoy teaching, the eureka moments and the satisfaction of seeing students improve far outweigh the frustrations that are part & parcel with dealing with the human brain. It was somewhere at the end of the first quarter that plans for my transfer to the school became more concrete, particularly when my successor was identified and accepted the offer. Thus, a new chapter of my life began with a hectic schedule of moving a school with 5 years of tag along baggage to a new building & preparing for the new opening in the span of a single month. This was interspersed with meetings with many parents, putting my rarely used marketing skills to the test, which was not as bad as I thought, maybe because it is easier to sell an idea you believe in.

Trust me, this does happen sometimes

With all that out of the way let's talk about some boardgame statistics for 2021 using the very handy Board Game Stats app, with a side by side comparison to 2020:

2021 v 2020

2021 was a breakout year in terms of my personal boardgaming. I had only once crossed 100 plays in ten years of gaming so to cross 300 this year is amazing. Gloomhaven has started contributing once again because I have started my solo playthrough of the game whilst SWAGamers is still on hiatus due to the pandemic. This is likely to continue because vaccinations for younglings that are the Padawans’ age have not been rolled out yet in this country. So where did the plays come from? So 150 plays were with the Padawans (which includes 120 plays of Uno), a dozen solo plays and a couple from TTS & Tabletopia and finally the emergence of a new weekly boardgaming group on Board Game Arena (BGA) which was another 133 plays for the year.

The origins of this new BGA group is one of those funny stories. The futsal group I don’t go to but still belong to started playing Among Us when the pandemic shut down contact sports. Among Us led to Codenames, Covidopoly, Settlers of Catan and even when things opened up again, we just shifted game nights to another night and kept going. Five months in, I decided it was time to get a premium account on BGA (which turned out to be two months before they increased membership prices) & then… I opened Pandora’s box and introduced the group to Board Game Stats… Talk about spilling blood in shark infested waters. So now we have seasons, league tables, podium finishes, points depending on complexity, win percentages and surprisingly I think that’s what’s keeping the weeks going & interesting.

The standard evolution of competitive boardgamers - Sharkmon

So this year, I made one new acquisition, added five new expansions, paid a deposit for two kickstarters and sold four boardgames resulting in a net DECREASE of three boardgames, the first such incidence in my collection’s history. I guess as I play more boardgames, the threshold to get into my collection becomes a lot higher and I would rather get expansions to boardgames that I get to the table more often. So let’s get into the details of what has changed in the collection:

A strong indicator of when it is time to trim the excess

Boardgames From Last Year's Wishlist:

So four out of eight boardgames on the wishlist made it into the collection. Orleans: Trade & Intrigue, Terraforming Mars: Prelude & Draftosaurus are all boardgames that were not available here so the minute they did become available this year, I picked them up straightaway. It really took production updates by Cephalofair Games to see how good Frosthaven was going to be when it finally arrives for me to finally put down a deposit for it. The campaign is suffering significantly delays and had some minor PR issues, but I see that as working in my favor in order for me to take a good long think as to whether I should be adding another beast of a boardgame to my collection.

Wishlists – keeping your FOMO at bay

Boardgames Added / Dropped / Staying on This Year's Wishlist:

A Feast For Odin with Norwegians expansion

A Feast For Odin is staying on the list, in fact I am hoping to get it as a bundle with its expansion A Feast For Odin: The Norwegians. Unfortunately bundles are quite rare here as stock tends to be filled on a demand basis to reduce stock holding costs. I may have to look to neighboring countries to try and get this eventually.

Aeon’s End is leaving the list. I don’t play it’s standalone expansion, Aeon’s End: War Eternal enough to justify getting the base game and I might even put it up for sale at the next Tabletop Day or put it in the school’s Boardgame Club.

Updated ISS: Vanguard

ISS Vanguard also went through some design hiccups which has delayed the closure of the pledge manager to next year. I am largely still uncertain about ISS Vanguard because I will probably end up playing it solo given the current climate, but I am keeping it on the wishlist mainly due to the uniqueness of its design.

Darwin’s Journey is also leaving the wishlist. Unfortunately the design doesn’t grip me enough and the theme is not attractive enough to make me convince others to give up 3 hours of their lives to this boardgame.

Ark Nova

Ark Nova is a new release this year. It seems that designer Mathias Wigge threw a bunch of cool and modern boardgame mechanisms into a pot, stirred it clockwise seven times, added bits of every known animal on planet Earth and voila, out popped Ark Nova - a boardgame about managing a modern and scientific zoological establishment that ultimately supports conservation projects around the world. Talk about being ambitious AND green at the same time. Everyone agrees that the playtime is horrifically long but everything else is so wonderful that the playtime becomes the necessary evil for building an ecologically responsible zoo. A FLGS just put up a preorder for a January shipment so I’m seriously contemplating this for 2022.

Boonlake

I will admit that it was Boonlake’s artist Klemens Franz’s work that first attracted me to the game. Add to the fact that I am still missing all of Alexander Pfister’s work in my life and it is a match made in heaven. High point scoring, ALL Player actions ala Race For The Galaxy and finally… a boardgame using cards that has an actual board! (There was a period in my life when I had more card only boardgames) As stocks are not available outside of Essen, it is going on the wishlist whilst I wait for more reviews to be released.

Vindication

Lastly, Vindication has earned a place on the wishlist as well. Hexagonal tiles, heroes, monster fighting, resource conversion are all elements that make me happy. Now this isn’t the first time that Vindication has shown up on my radar, but the first kickstarter was in the same year as Dwellings of Eldervale and I decided on the latter instead because man does Dwellings of Eldervale look infinitely better. But I keep hearing that Vindication is a mechanical marvel of design despite its shortcomings in the theme & aesthetics. Vindication has come and gone from my wishlist a couple of times this year but seeing as there is no retail copy available right now, I have to wait for the kickstarter copies to arrive with its new expansion Vindication: Chronicles so there’s still time to decide on this acquisition.

So here is the updated wishlist as at the end of 2021. If I were to wager a guess, I would say that Boonlake seems to be the most likely to purchased from this list, I guess only time will tell.

Interest, Bookmarks, Updates, Comparisons, Reviews - It is pretty hard to get off the wishlist

Boardgames Added To THE SHELF:

So apart from Orleans: Trade & Intrigue, Terraforming Mars: Prelude & Frosthaven, what else did I acquire in 2021?

Castles of Mad King Ludwig: Collector’s Edition

Castles of Mad King Ludwig: Collector’s Edition
I had heard that the Polish edition had tiles with beautiful art that made the room tiles really pop. I also heard that they got into trouble with Bezier Games because of that? I guess Bezier Games finally saw an opportunity as opposed to a threat. Castles of Mad King Ludwig is a beloved game in my household, so there was zero hesitation when the kickstarter for the collector’s edition was launched. Not only does it feature the one of a kind Polish edition art, it also contains all the expansions (which I don’t have) and GameTrayz (bonus). It’s supposed to be fulfilled this month but as with most projects, this looks to be an April 2022 fulfillment.

Smash Up: Marvel

Smash Up: Marvel
The Marvel IP is taking over boardgames of all types and sizes. From Love Letter, Villainous, Splendor, Munchkin, Codenames, Dice Throne and then of course, we have Smash Up: Marvel. Now I don’t play Smash Up very often but I keep my copy for sentimental reasons and since Padawan Babygeek loves Spiderman, I decided to capitalize on the opportunity when a sale came on. There is a bit of math involved when playing Smash Up so it would double up as a learning opportunity for Padawan Babygeek. I do have to say that I am actually pleasantly surprised that they did a really good job and it doesn’t feel like a pasted on theme at all. The powers are interesting and thematic to the superpowers of the Marvel heroes and I actually enjoyed myself experimenting with the harder villain factions like the Sinister Six and Hydra.

Wingspan: European Expansion

Wingspan: European Expansion
I’m hazarding a guess that Wingspan will have expansions that cover every bird species on every continent of the globe before they’re through. Although the amount of cards that need to be managed by then would require multiple casino dealers to handle at each session. As it is, just the European Expansion alone means all of the cards can no longer fit into the bird tray anymore. Wingspan is another family favourite and the aforementioned sale resulted in this expansion entering the collection as well.

Paladins of the West Kingdom: City of Crowns

Paladins of the West Kingdom: City of Crowns
And the winner for the longest expansion title name goes to… I really like Paladins of the West Kingdom and when the expansion was announced together with the deluxe collector’s box, I was definitely interested. However I did get burned in the Paladins of the West Kingdom kickstarter when my copy arrived later than others who got it at retail so I decided to go the retail route this time. Little did I know that retail would not include the deluxe collector’s box, which meant that I would have to keep the game and its expansion separately, what a bummer. So I paid an extra USD10 nine months later and ordered it directly off of Garphill Games’ website and for some strange reason, was shipped from Greece, which surprisingly is almost equidistant to New Zealand from where I am and only took a surprising 10 days to arrive despite the holidays.

Boardgames NEW to me in 2021:

So I normally supply the boardgames in my gaming group, which usually means I rarely play boardgames that I don’t already own and thus would have covered them in the updates to my boardgame collection. However, with the new normal comes new boardgaming habits and playing most of my sessions on BGA basically means access to many, many boardgames I do not own. And so, due to the wonders of online boardgaming, I managed to partake of 25 boardgames that are new to me this year. Due to the size of this list, I won’t cover each boardgame extensively and will limit it to one or two sentences that convey my experience, most of which comes from online play.

Draftosaurus:
I love the fact that the base game comes with two different modes (“seasons”) of play & that you can just play both seasons and total Players’ scores to get maximum enjoyment. It does contain some randomness but it is very unlikely that you will luck yourself into a win.

The Crew: Mission Deep Sea:
The tension designed into this game is exquisite. You spend silent, tense minutes seeing if your party manages to complete the mission such that when you succeed or fail, everyone starts talking about it to unwind the tension. Best in the wee hours or after a few drinks.

Libertalia:
Our favourite 5-6 Player boardgame at the moment. The interaction between pirate crew characters & incessant backstabbing makes this fun when not taken too seriously. Extremely funny when every Player decides to play the Beggar at the same time.

These are how tragic comedies are written

Nidavellir:
I think Nidavellir plays better online, otherwise calculators will be needed at the table. This is the set collection mechanic turned up to 100 which somehow works by giving you rewards and bonuses that crank your set collection up to even more absurd levels.

Downforce:
Downforce brings out the mean person in you and it is really the only reason it is fun. The betting mechanic was never particularly impactful as there was always a runaway leader in our plays, leaving other players wrestling their way through choke points & hurling insults at each other for every square space claimed.

6 nimmt!:
This is actually a very calm and zen boardgame where people line up their cards in numerical order to seek balance in the universe… And then along comes some schmuck who cuts queue and doesn’t know mathematics, screwing up best laid plans and starts the next world war that ends with a post-apocalyptic fallout world.

Lost Ruins of Arnak:
A very enjoyable and fun-filled adventure. It really feels like you are an explorer, looking for priceless idols, fighting off the local guardian beasts with a trusty assistant at your side. The research track however made less sense thematically for me and it is probably made worse that the research track is quite necessary to win. The overall theme still shines despite this flaw and I’d love to play it more.

Oh and the rulebook is very, very good

Alhambra:
We have played Alhambra at the highest player counts and it does feel very slow as there is often very little avenue to plan ahead because the game state keeps changing from turn to turn. In fact the boardgame rewards you for taking money (effectively doing nothing) so that when you can pay exact change, you get an extra turn. A lot of waiting for a big pay off of multiple turns.

Carcassonne:
Thanks to the automated capabilities of BGA, we finally figured out how fields are scored in Carcassonne. Still a great game despite its age, the appearance of the Monastery tile still makes a Player rejoice and others look on in jealous envy.

Wizard:
Quite similar to Hearts but the scores are based on your own prediction of the number of hands you will win that round. Not a short game for a simple game, more of an alternative to typical Chinese New Year card games to pass time when visiting family & friends.

No Thanks!:
This is 6 nimmt!’s distant cousin that walked into an alternate universe and came back with a habit of swearing randomly in an alien language. Not as interesting to play with accountants but a heck of a good time with those who just can’t resist saying “Maybe it’s my lucky day”.

King of Tokyo:
The simpler, younger brother to King of New York. Both brothers share the same dna which is rolling dice and taking monster names (the best part) as well as wait times due to player elimination (the worst part).

Marrakech:
I probably would never have touched this if not for the anime "After School Dice Club" which featured Marrakech in episode 1. Very fun if you love take that and kingmaking in your games (there are strange people all around us).

Splendor:
Pick a color(s) and hope you win.

Santorini:
I’ve played this once with 4 Players which I understand is not ideal and made me glad that I didn’t pick this one up as I rarely play at 2 Players and when I do, I like the games to be epic.

Flamecraft:
I wanted to back this, I really did. Mostly because of Peter Vaughn who did an amazing job on Dwellings of Eldervale but playing this felt a lot like Harbour for me and I can enjoy Harbour on BGA too.

It is a very, very pretty game

Clank! In Space!:
Bring your sneaky along and then put on your running shoes and high tail it outta there! I personally feel that it’s wrong to give Players points from deck building but man is this a fun game!

Crusaders: Thy Will Be Done:
I considered backing this on kickstarter back in the days when I believed TMG could do no wrong when it comes to deluxified games. It is a solid game but a bit too abstract for my tastes and ultimately not for me.

So, You’ve Been Eaten:
Another 2 Player game but with an interesting premise. The game revolves around Players trying to outguess their opponents and play mind games with each other. Very tense when played with a stranger but I suspect more fun with a friend.

Beyond The Sun:
Beyond The Sun reminds me of how I felt about Terraforming Mars - “It’s so good! And so ugly!” To be fair, bland is a more apt description. Which is a shame because for the first time, Beyond The Sun makes a boardgame just about tech trees fun & interesting.

It just doesn’t… pop

Azul:
Interesting but lacks punch? There is some Player interaction but I think the tenseness is lost when playing at 4 Players (which has been my experience) because there are more tiles available. Not many highs and more of a monotone experience.

Res Arcana:
This was not easy for me to wrap my head around especially because it rewards Player efficiency and punishes moves that don’t contribute towards your strategy. Missing specific essences can be very difficult and admittedly the boardgame has many layers that I have not begun to appreciate yet.

Kingdomino:
A simple and pleasant tile laying game that rewards Players who not only plan out their kingdom but group similar terrain types together. Some potential for kingmaking and can be unreasonably long when played with kiasu people who take kids’ boardgames too seriously.

Happy City:
Machi Koro on depressants? It felt too slow for my tastes with very little payoff.

Similo:
I have to try this with a less carnivorous group of Players as it really didn’t fly with them.

Closing Thoughts On 2021:

COVID continues to threaten the way we live. In Malaysia, we have only had one big wave of cases which we are still recovering from as our vaccination rates for adults and adolescents managed to reach 97% and 87% respectively. As other countries go through their second or third waves, I realize that on a personal level I cannot take for granted that Malaysia won’t go through the same waves in the near future. So we have been keeping the Padawans at home as much as possible. I personally try not to go anywhere that is not required by my work and limit my movement to only what is necessary. It is wonderful how the Padawans have been such troopers throughout this time, understanding that their activities are limited because of COVID-19.

As I watch the students come in to purchase new uniforms and see how much all of them have changed, I realize both Padawan Minigeek and Babygeek have changed tremendously as well. Padawan Minigeek has developed her own interests, to her mother’s horror, and has gained a taste for complicated ice cream flavors. Her mother is always worried that she would never develop a reading habit, but as I suspected it was always the reading material that was the problem. Padawan Babygeek uses big words now, although sometimes he has no idea what the word means, props for trying though. When not glued to the idiot box, he spends his time enacting epic adventures and dramas with his toys and of course, opening daddy’s cupboard to play the game about trains (apparently this refers to Barenpark). Most of my days in the earlier part of this year were actually spent online teaching whilst the Padawans were online learning around the same dining table, cooking meals during the lockdown, cleaning and washing and playing a lot of Uno. When I finally got back to the office, there was a lot to do as the lockdown had caused a significant backlog of statutory and governmental submissions, not to mention that I had to pass down my knowledge as well as handle extra classes for the exam sitting students before finally transitioning to my new place of employment which is a 10 second journey away from the old one, on foot. Wow, one year in a nutshell.

The BGA group which we call “BRUTE Board Games” recently closed its first season as we wrapped up the last Tuesday night session of 2021. “One of the best surprises of the year” was one of the comments and I have to agree that this is true for me as well. I have never missed a session since and it is really great that I can come home, do some work and then get a full reset every Tuesday night.

The other cool thing about BGA is that now I can finally take pics of everyone’s reaction at the right time

So what's next in 2022?

School should take over most of my time inside and outside of work. It’s not that I was not committed to my other employers but I never usually had trouble separating the office from my personal life. And yet as I say that, it does not feel unnatural to be constantly thinking about the school outside of office hours either. Maybe it is because my job has a direct impact in ensuring there is a place of learning for Padawan Minigeek and Babygeek, or because after spending blood, sweat & tears to ensure the continued existence of this school, it feels natural to be sold out for the cause.

The coming year will be a new year of creating and discarding plan after plan after plan to ensure the school runs like a well oiled machine and finding that impossible balance between functionality and cost. At the same time, once again the accounting knowledge of international exam sitting students will also be in my hands this year, so Spiel will probably have to wait until the fine day when I retire.

I would love to get some boardgames to the table but realistically speaking, there is no way this is going to happen in the first half of 2022 since the Padawans are not vaccinated and may only be possible in the latter half of the year. I’m aiming to try and wrap Gloomhaven Solo in 2022 and definitely do a lot more online boardgaming as well. I strongly doubt if there will be any further permutations in the way I approach my hobby next year but one can never really know I suppose. I have enjoyed doing stop motion recordings of my solo Gloomhaven playthroughs and may try to do that with other boardgames next year.

And for this year’s geeky contribution to the world, you should check out this guy’s work:

@boxofficeartist does incredible hand drawn pieces like these and you can watch him on YouTube as he creates them

To my people, I hope 2022 is the year you achieve something you want to do, for others or for yourself. Be the person that thinks ‘Someone ought to do something’ and finish it with ‘and that someone is me’. May you find yourself as you do something in the coming year.