JacquelynneHei1

10 x 10 List

What is a 10 x 10 list?

A 10 x 10 list is a list of 10 board games that I am committing to play each 10 times over the course of the next year. I’ve seen a lot of avid gamers and designers do this in the past and it really intrigued me.

Why am I doing a 10 x 10?

I decided to do this as a way to get to know 10 games better. And I mean this from a design aspect. If I commit to really playing a game then I will get a better feel for the mechanics and simple nuances of game-play. I am really excited to play 10 games 10 times as a gamer but also as a designer. I am excited to learn more about how other designers design games.

What games are on my list?

This was harder than expected. We own 100+ board games so narrowing that down to 10 games that I really want to explore more was a little difficult. Did I want to explore games that I hadn’t really played much? Or should I start with games I love to play? Should I pick games with interesting mechanics? Should I include games that I don’t like?

I really didn’t know which games would be best to start with. So I decided on a mix. I picked a few games that I really love, a game that I normally pass over in favor for other games, a few games that I’ve only played a few times and a few with a mechanic that I want to know more about.

The games:

  1. Power Grid
  2. Clank! In Space
  3. Stone Age
  4. Ticket to Ride
  5. Axis & Allies D-Day
  6. Eminent Domain
  7. Suburbia
  8. Merchant & Marauders
  9. Tzolkin
  10. Terraforming Mars

 

Initial Thoughts:

Before I get started on the list I wanted to add some thoughts that I am having right now. I then want to come back at the end of it and compare the experience to my hopes.

The games that I picked because I really enjoy them are :

  • Stone Age
  • Ticket to Ride
  • Tzolkin

I am a big fan of worker placement games, especially two player. I mainly play games with my husband and don’t get to play with a lot of different people very often. Worker placement games are usually a great pick because they don’t have very much conflict between players. I really don’t like hurting my opponent at the expense of my gain. And worker placements usually scale really well down to a two player game. I know that is not true for every game but it seems to work for us. Both Stone Age and Tzolkin are worker placements games. I included Ticket to Ride because it is a really fun game.

The games that I picked that I normally wouldn’t play are:

  • Axis & Allies D-Day
  • Eminent Domain

I am not a big fan of the strategic war games. I really don’t like to play games like Risk or Axis & Allies usually. I have played Axis & Allies before and enjoyed it but it isn’t a type of game that I usually want to sit down and play. I have played Eminent domains a few times and it was okay. I didn’t love or hate it. It kind of gets lost in all the other games I want to play. I would like to try to play it a little more and really explore the game and mechanics.

The games that I want to know more about the mechanic are:

  • Power Grid
  • Merchants & Marauders
  • Terraforming Mars

These are games that I both like and dislike. But the mechanics are ones that I like or want to know more about. My husband loves Power Grid, I don’t feel like I LOVE the game but it is pretty good. I like the auction in the game and how it affects the player dynamic. I don’t get to play it very much because it doesn’t have a two player variant. I think someone told me that the new Power Grid does have one but I will have to look into this more. I like Merchants & Marauders but it is a long game and I usually won’t pull it out because of the size and length of the game. It’s really fun when I do pull it out though. I really want to learn more about this game. I actually play Terraforming Mars a lot because my husband and his friends always want to play it. And you know, majority rules. I don’t think Terraforming Mars is a particularly great game. It is okay. But overall I usually have fun playing it. And for this I am going straight base game because the expansions over complicate the game and add to much. I think I really want to get to know the original game and learn more about the game on the base level.

The games I haven’t played very much are:

  • Clank! In Space
  • Suburbia

I have played both of these games before but only once or twice. My husband loves Suburbia but can’t ever seem to win at it, which I think is funny. The game is fun, from what I remember. I am interested in playing it again and learning more about the catch up mechanic in the game because I think it is one of the better ones I have seen. Clank! In Space is a lot of fun. I really like how it is a race, and I love the deck building mechanic on it. I hadn’t seen a board game driven by a deck building mechanic before it. I really just want to play it and learn more about how it works.