January Game stats
also wtf how is it February already?
January went by in a blur for me! With the new year starting on a Thursday and then we had a big snow/ice storm in Maryland that shut down the the state for pretty much the whole last week of the month, it really felt like it was just here and then gone!
But I did get some games in! Let’s see what the BGStats reveal for this month:
Highlights:
I received ‘Next Station: London’ as a gift in December so I used BGA to refresh how to play before taking it with me to work to teach my friend. Did I immediately mess up the rule about the red cards being the round timer? Yes. Why am I so bad at remembering even basic rules? Perhaps it is the problem with learning via BGA instead of a real person.
‘Pergola’ was one I had wanted to play and a friend offered to teach me. I’m a little obsessed with it and I feel like it fits well with the BGA format.
I played one whole game of ‘7 Wonders Dice’ not knowing what the heck I was doing, got a quick tutorial, then jumped back in and really liked it. I’m not sure I need it in my collection, but it’s going to be in regular rotation on BGA now, for sure.
‘Captain Flip: Isla Bomba’ in BETA on BGA and the new maps are a lot of fun! I really hope Play Punk released them in the U.S.! Flip is still my go-to lunch game - I’m usually at least gold in Arena mode.
FINALLY broke out ‘Hercules and the 12 Labors’, a solo game from Envy Born Games that I had backed on Kickstarter. Gorgeous production with lovely foil cards that just elevate the table presence which is really nice for a solo game. It is a tough game, I got lucky (or forgot a rule) and made it a few chapters in on my first try. But the next time I played, I got wiped out really quick due to some poor dice rolls. But it is solid and I’m going to get ‘Jason and the Argonauts’ for sure.
I did a couple rounds of playtesting the solo modes on Chicken Fried Dice - the kickstarter launches soon and I am definitely backing it.
I discovered that Clank! has a solo mode via the Dire Wolf Digital app - I’m not sure if this was a new update or if I just had not bothered to look, but it was a great chance to get the game on the table. I played 3 times - first try, I died in the depths, second I was downed but rescued and third I escaped! I might type up a whole post about this because I was so thrilled with how well it worked, so I will stop there for now.
I am STILL working my way through The Hobbit “chapters” in solo mode. The last two maps are very complex and then applying the limited number of rounds for solo mode…oof. Fun but getting very tricksy.
Looking at my BGA profile, I think my stats didn’t upload correctly from BGA to BGStats, because there are my top plays on there for the month:
Guess I will have to type up another post to talk about those!






What a cool selection of games!
Haven't heard of Hercules and the 12 Labors before, but it looks super interesting. I will keep my eyes open. And yes, I can't believe we are one week into February already, either!