My top 10 games of 2022

 

 

I have put together my top 10 games for 2022.  Note that these are games that I have played for the first time in 2022, not necessarily games that were released in 2022.  With all the games that I already have, I got another 13 games plus expansions last year.  Some were gifts, some were purchased at the thrift stores, and some were new.

Again I failed to play ten new games.  I did get two solo plays in this year.  I brought a couple of solo games to the table a few times (Firefly Adventures, and Big Trouble in Little China) but was unable to find the motivation to figure out how to play them.  This was also the year with the fewest new game purchases but also the first year I did not manage to play any of the new games purchased.

 

The new games were: All’s Quiet on the Martian Front, Castles in the Sky, Disney Villainous: Bigger and Badder, Dust Warfare, Gamma Wolves, Marvel Villainous – Mischief & Malice, Pulp!, Star Wars Villainous: Power of the Dark Side, Street Wars NYC, The Men Who Would be Kings, Unmatched – Battle of Legends Volume 2, Unmatched – Hell’s Kitchen, Unmatched – Redemption Row.

 

The ones I picked up not new were:

Dust Tactics Revised Core

 

None of these hit the table this year.  Some games from previous years were finally played.

 

 

7 – Codenames: Pictures – we’re still not a huge fan of the Codenames system – where you have to give clues to your team about which card to pick, and more importantly, not pick.  My wife preferred the pictures to the words in Codenames, while I prefer the words.

6 – Button Men: Beat People Up – we used to love Button Men back in the day.  It is a simple battle game using dice.  The new game has the characters printed onto cards instead of buttons.  It didn’t play as well as I remember but that could be due to the other player who was new to the system.

5 – Gold Town – I was finally able to print out the components for this game and played through it solo.  It is more about miners going to town to cash in their gold and get supplies than gunfights.  The rules are pretty detailed to go through but it plays pretty well after the first few rounds.  It doesn’t seem to overstay its time and will be worth giving it another try with more people.

4 – Marvel Splendor – it plays similar to the regular Splendor game with a few modifications.  The Marvel theme does make this more likely for us to pick up.  I am sure that there is more to this game that we have not figured out yet but we do look forward to playing it more to try to figure it out.

3 – Disney Haunted Mansion: Call of the Spirits – a simple, quick card game where you try to collect sets of ghosts without collecting too many haunt cards.  The player who collects the most haunt cards loses their largest set. 

2 – Don’t Look Back – a horror movie skirmish game.  The rules are a bit jumbled, but I was able to play this solo.  It seems like it should be a pretty fun fit for our group.

1 – Transformers Armada: Battle for Cybertron – This is based off of the Star Wars Duels system, and more importantly the new Unmatched system.  It is a simplified skirmish game using cards.  It went over well with our group so we should be able to play some of those as well. 

 

Figure Painting Total - December 2022

 I didn’t buy a bunch of figures in the last few months.  I also did not get a lot painted in the last few months. I was looking on track to finish another 100 figures but my momentum fizzled ot in the last three months.  

I got two figure sets for Christmas but the Justice League set was missing the arms sprue.  So I will add the rest of them when I get the missing pieces.

 

Bought

DCU – Justice League – 2*(three figures missing arms)

DLB – Mama Luna’s Pizza - 3

 

 

Painted

 

 

Dec total – 5 figures bought, 0 figures painted

Final total 2022 – figures bought 194, figures painted 75

 

Books read - September to December 2022

 Sept

The Store that Timothy Built by William Stephenson

Tinsel by William Goldman

Trolley Car Treasury by Frank Rowsome, Jr.

 

Oct

Barbarians at the Gate by Bryan Burrogh & John Helvar

Artemis by Andy Weir

I Killed by Ritch Shydner and Mark Schiff

 

Nov

All Tomorrow’s Parties by William Gibson

A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs

 

Dec

Pulp! by Marco Arnaudo

Frostgrave Ghost Archipelago: Gods of Fire by Joseph A McCullough

Frostgrave Ghost Archipelago: Cities of Bronze by Joseph A McCullough

The Men Who Would be King by Daniel Mersey

Frostgrave: The Maze of Malcor by Joseph A McCullough

 

Gingerbread Popcorn

 This is from TheChunkyChef.com.  My daughter had made it one year for Brownies.  It is an odd taste.  It's not one of my favorites but it is a hit with a lot of people.

Ingredients

- 14 cups popped popcorn (try to remove unpopped kernels)

- 1 1/4 cups packed light brown sugar

- 3/4 cup unsalted butter, cubed

- 1/2 cup light corn syrup

- 1/4 cup molasses (we usually use cooking, but have also used fancy)

- 2 tsp ground ginger

- 1 tsp ground cinnamon

- pinch ground cloves

- 1/2 tsp kosher salt

- 1 tsp baking soda

- 1/2 - 1 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions

1. Lightly coat a large mixing bowl with non-stick cooking spray.  Add popped popcorn and set aside.

2. Line two baking pans with parchment paper and lightly spray with non-stick cooking spray.  Set aside.  Preheat oven to 250 degrees F.

3. Add brown sugar, butter, corn syrup, molasses, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and salt to a heavy bottomed saucepan and heat over MED heat, stirring constantly.  Bring to a boil, and then boil without stirring for 4 minutes.

4. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla and baking soda.  The caramel will foam a bit, that's okay.  Working quickly, pour the mixture over the popcorn and mix as well as you can.  If not all the popcorn is covered, that's okay, as it bakes the caramel with thin out and be easier to stir and coat.

5. Transfer the popcorn to the prepared baking pans.  Bake for 1 hour, stirring every 10-15  minutes.  Let cool in the pans, and then break apart any large clumps and store in an airtight container.

Back in Office

November 22 I went back in to work.  My wife has been going in to the office two days a week for quite some time but, this was the first time back for me since we became isolates.  I was lucky enough to be in a job where I could work from home but they feel that they miss us enough to bring us back.

 

I carried all my equipment back and was able to get everything set up and working at the new desk within an hour.  Someone had moved all of the rest of my stuff that I had left back from the before times to my new desk.  If you know anything about me, you can picture how much stuff that was. 

 

The big difference is that I’m now working on a left hand desk.  I was on a right hand desk for over ten years before we went out and on a straight desk for the last two and a half years.  I’m trying to see if I can get it to work of if it’s going to be too much of a struggle.  The last time I had a left hand desk, I had a bad kink in my shoulder within two days.  I’m working slightly differently now, but we will see how it goes.

 

On the up side, now that I am back in the office, as of Dec 7, I now have my weekends back, as my department only works from Monday through Friday.

 

Figure Painting Total - October 2022

I was hoping to get more painting done but alas.  I had thought that I was easily on track for another 100 figures this year but now we will have to see if I can get the momentum back in time.

Bought

DLB: The Curse of Oak Hill – 2

DLB: Supporting Characters – 6

 

 

 

Painted

 

 

Oct total – 8 figures bought, 0 figures painted

Running total 2022 – figures bought 189, figures painted 75

Holidays, hobby, health, and happiness

 I just finished two weeks of holidays from work.  More and more, I am liking taking the two weeks containing Halloween and Remembrance Day.   Since we aren’t doing costuming as much or conventions really, I usually take Christmas to New Years, and then these two weeks.  I try to spread my remaining holidays around the year but these two picks mean I usually don’t get anything in the July to August part of summer.

I had hoped to get a lot more hobbying done – both painting and playing some games.  Neither happened.  Well, no figure painting.

I did end up finishing painting the living room and front hall.  We finally assembled the replacement wall unit.  We went with a Besta from Ikea.  The wall it goes on isn’t quite long enough for both cabinets but we replaced the other with a Billy bookcase.  This gives plenty of space for the dvds and knick knacks.

We hadn’t really decorated much inside for Halloween, but we did decorate the yard.  The weather held this year, giving a lovely night for Trick or Treating and we had 36 kids visit.  Not a ton compared to some, but a solid number for our area.

We found time to make it to the local ComicCon, which was the first time since the new owners came in just before the lockdowns.  We didn’t go last year, but since Bruce Campbell was the guest, we were pretty much swayed.  Lea Thompson, who is filming a series locally, also ended up attending as a replacement guest at the last minute for Lou Ferrigno.  She was lovely. 

After Halloween, we transitioned right into Christmas.  We got the tree up and house redecorated.  We managed to get the winter tires on ahead of the snow fall.

My wife had taken the second week off as well and we spend the week catching up on the new season of TV.  Thursday through Sunday though, the household came down with some malaise, likely flu, and we were all just sleeping and coughing, and huddled on the couches in blankets watching TV. 

Even still, it was a pretty relaxing time off.