#7 2008 - Starfarers of Catan
Who knew that a Saturday night in December could so drastically alter one's life. A friend of my next door neighbor in the dorms came by and asked if he wanted to play a game. He was heading out, but he said "Ask the guy next door, he likes games." So the guy asked me and I was reading for class, but I decided a diversion would be a nice thing. So there I was, playing a game I had never heard of with 4 people I didn't know, but it was a blast. I got into it really quickly, since it did resemble Catan. I admit to having some amazing luck that game, and I ended up winning because of it. But that's not the important thing. That night sparked 3 good friendships, many nights of nights playing boardgames, mostly Cosmic Encounter, and truly finding where I belonged in College.
#6 2009 - Formula D
My dad and I are big Formula 1 fans, so buying Formula D for Father's Day was a perfect gift. We didn't get around to playing until August, but when we did, what a race. All 4 of us got together, and it was a tight race. My dad and I got out to early leads, but my sister kept things close. Dad and I were neck and neck going into Rascasse (2nd to last turn) when I hit the brakes just a little too late. He was able to come out of the corner in a higher gear, and beat me to the line by about 5 places. My sister was hot on my heels, but she broke late as well, which allowed me to get out ahead. Racing around the streets of Monaco was a great way to break in Formula D.
#5 2007 - First time become lord of Catan
Late in the summer of 2007, I got together with my gaming family to play Catan. I've been playing for nearly 9 months at this point, and I'd yet to win a game. Now, I didn't really mind, since I was having a good time playing, but still, I really wanted to win. I jumped out to an early lead by cornering the ORE market. Most players needed to trade with me in order to build cities or knights, so I was a popular guy. All of that was just enough to get me through, and at the end, I heard those words that felt so good, "All hail lord of Catan."
#4 2010 - First game of Munchkin
I'm not a huge fan of Munchkin these days, but back then I was young and naive. I sat down to learn the game. The rules basically made sense, and everyone seemed to have a good natured attitude towards it. Then things got nasty, as they're prone to do in Munchkin. Things were really close, everyone was at level 8 or 9. Then it happened, DIVINE INTERVENTION, and oh look, I was a Level 9 Cleric, which made me a game winner, along with the other 2 Level 9 Clerics. So we had a 3-way win thanks to Divine Intervention. It has to be the least frustrating game of Munchkin that I've ever played.
#3 2011 - Shadows Over Camelot
In my 32nd game of Shadows, I was finally the traitor. Now, not all of these games have used loyalty cards, but still, that's a lot of Shadows to play Loyal. When I first saw the card I got excited, but I knew I couldn't show it. I was playing Sir Percival, which has the power to look at the top black card before deciding on his evil action. This is fairly useless, unless you have Lancelot's Armor. So, I convinced the knights to let me get the armor. I was victorious in my quest, but I knew I still had to play things loyal. I couldn't always play really bad black cards, but I tried to pick the worse of the two, or at least what I thought would hurt more. As it turns out, the game was running very loyal. Loyal knights seemed to be cruising towards victory. Then it happened, a string of bad black cards, Vivien, Mists of Avalon, Dark Forest, all in quick succession. I knew this was my chance, so on my turn I chose the more hurtful of black cards. I kept this up for 3 rounds, by then I was gathering some attention for my poor card play. That's when I did it, I falsely accused a fellow knight, and then played Fate to send myself to Traitorland. From there it was a relatively easy cruise for me, the game lasted another 2 rounds, and then the knights were no more. Muhahaha.
#2 2012 - 7 Wonders
I was at a game night, and we had an hour left to play. There were 5 of us, 3 who had never played 7 Wonders, so I suggested it as something relatively light. I set off to explaining the rules, and everyone seemed to understand what was going on. There were some questions along the way, but that's to be expected. By the 2nd age, everyone was going at a good clip. In the 3rd age, I knew things were going to be close. There was a lot of coins out there, and several key guilds in play. We tallied up the scores at the end, 46-45-44-42-26. I have never seen the top 4 covered by 4 points, it was intense. The 3 new guys were 45-44-26. I ended up winning, but I didn't think I had it until the score was final. 2 of the guys liked it so much, they went and bought the game for themselves. That's the mark of a good time.
#1 2009 - My 2nd game of Battlestar Galactica
I'm playing President Roslin, and a key crisis comes up early on. My turn comes to add cards, and I put them on the table. My friend Aaron says something to the effect of "That's how a cylon plays cards." I pointed out that I couldn't possibly play cards that hurt us, since both of my colors were positive. He wasn't buying it though. Everyone seemed to ignore it after we passed the check. I was in fact a cylon in that game, and we did win when Admiral Tigh revealed himself as a bomber and destroyed Galactica. Aaron knows me pretty well, and he's perceptive, but for him to call it that early still makes me smile.
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