At games night, back when games groups could meet up, you’d often see a game played once and then never show up again. I mean you’d also see quite a few repeat plays of the favourites, but I did notice a lot of single plays of games. A few had been games I wanted to play and so took with me hoping to lure some people in with the temptation of a couple of hours of “euro misery!”

My problem with “play once” is the fact there’s a lot of emphasis on the teaching. After all, you’d not want to get to the end of a game to figure out you didn’t understand end game scoring. It’s not my preference to be teaching games where everything has to get taught upfront. As for learning games where you get 30+ minutes of someone talking through the rules? Yeah, my brain isn’t good at that, as I will get distracted and my mind will wander. I’m not sure how you best teach games at games night where there is limited time.

I know what we like to do at home - Play the game multiple times. So, let’s use the excellent Brass: Birmingham as an example. Just like my post of “how many times do you play a game?”:

Game 1. All information open. Me teaching by using actions my wife can do in her turn. Allowing as many questions as needed. Sometimes suggesting a certain action.

Game 2. Open information mostly removed, but otherwise the same as the first play.

Game 3. Playing as normal, but still with opportunities for rules and strategy questions.

Game 4. Play as normal.

I guess this comes down to how we learn because the above isn’t just for my wife’s benefit. I learn by doing and watching. So whilst I’m the one who reads the rulebook and teaches the game, I learn better by watching someone on youtube play the game. That is then cemented in place by the few games played like shown above. Visually I am tying actions to the rulebook - it suddenly makes sense.

This habit of play the game multiple nights in a row has even started to fall into place for games we know, but not all of them.

Of course the above is impractical for a group games night, but it works for us. What works for you?

Not alone here, but I’d say that living through a global pandemic is hard on your mental health. Extremely hard.

I set this blog up last year, and a corresponding podcast - If You Ain’t Farming You Ain’t Gaming, only for the weight of the pandemic to crash down on me, and so I clung on with my fingernails, but so far I’m hanging on.

Having people care about me and look after my wellbeing helped keep me above water, however without board games, I think myself and my wife would have had a much tougher time keeping our sanity.

During the spring and summer periods, and the lockdown that happened, we could get out of the house for walks and cycle rides, being very lucky that it doesn’t take long to get out of the city and into the proper countryside. Can’t do that in autumn (Fall!) or winter.

Again, I’m lucky I can work from home. I have a dedicated home office, so unlike many office workers using laptops in the kitchen or bedroom, I can work comfortably. However, my home office is also where I used to relax after work. It has my gaming PC, my consoles, and a big TV. Nearly a year of solid hard graft in this room almost ruined it for relaxation, as it became associated with work - it was no longer my space.

Board games, played in the dining room, or living room, got me out the home office. I’ve certainly played fewer video games than a usual year - I don’t think I’ve turned my Xbox on in six months. I played board games 250 times, and that isn’t counting online board games via BGA et al.

So I’d like to thank modern board games for keeping my wife and me as well as we can be during a pandemic. Back to work soon, so I have to keep hanging on a little longer. Hope is rising, and to all my readers, stay safe and keep on playing board games!