The 2007 Gamecount

... is 172 (or thereabouts) plays of 69 individual games. Notable and fondly-remembered:

• Magic: The Gathering - 17 plays. Got all these in at the beginning of the year with Tim. I gave away most of my Magic cards to a younger friend of mine who has used them to good effect since then. No regrets (okay, the 5-honden deck. I miss that.)
• Blue Moon - 12 plays. Short and sweet, this Reiner Knizia beauty features plenty of tension and that "oh, just one more game" urge.
• Ra - 11 plays. What can I say? I got a copy of it, and I played it a lot, with a lot of people. I even managed to convert Larry into a grudging fan.
• Blue Moon City - 11 plays. Wife-friendly, plus Larry and I dig it. I have printed but not mounted the promotional expansion tiles.
• Attika - 9 plays. Yes, yes, yes. One of my best buys, except that Lee doesn't like it.
• San Juan - 7 plays. Falling a few from last year, also notable for making Race For The Galaxy easy to understand.
• Power Grid - 6 plays. Ohh, Power Grid. I'm not good at it, but I like it.
• Enemy Chocolatier - 4 plays. Last of the Cheapass Games line I really liked. A cute little abstract.
• Race For The Galaxy - 4 plays. This is going to see a lot of play in 2008, guaranteed. My favorite new release.
• Merchant of Venus - 3 plays. I miss having this hit the table regularly. Lee and I got in 3 games in May, if I remember correctly. Space pick-up and delivery at the pinnacle of awesomeness.
• Prizes of War (prototype) -4 plays. Chris was the reason this got to the table. Interesting, if frustrating, real-time mechanics that never quite jelled for me, but still tantalizing enough for repeat plays.
  
• Zhong Shi (prototype) - 3 plays. Kevin Nunn's design is to be published by Face2Face, if my information is correct. Fun, and I will buy a copy as soon as available.
• Memoir '44 - 2 plays. A decent WWII wargame, glad Chris has a copy and will play again.
  
• Phoenicia - 2 plays. Having Tom Lehmann's name on the cover got me interested, and tracking backward through his designs inspired me to try and make my own game.
  
• Pizarro & Co. - 2 plays. Nobody in our group liked this as much as I did, sadly.
• Tim's cyberpunk game (prototype) - 2 plays. Always glad to get in other people's designs.
  
• To Court The King - 2 plays. Notable because I got obsessed, and then didn't buy it, although it took me a bunch of index cards and scribbling to figure that out.
• Kevin's Animal Racing card game (prototype) - 1 play. Notable due to prototype status.
• Kevin's Hamster Racing game (prototype) - 1 play. Like an adorable RoboRally, roughly.
• Kevin's The Great Migration (self-published) - 1 play. I am buying a copy of this soon.
  
• Mission: Red Planet - 1 play. Part of the "Dave Lartigue's review is right" series.

I played 27 titles that were new to me. As part of my year-end wrap-up, I contributed some money to BoardGameGeek, so I could get my 2007 patron badge for the third year running.

What a year. If I play anything more, I'll post an update, but with Lee recovering from the birth and being at home with two pre-schoolers to care fore, I doubt much will happen.

Kevin Nunn's playtesting all New Year's Day, too... I was hoping to have a version of 18IA done in time to send for opinions, but I don't think that'll happen. If Daria had been born a week later, maybe.