Five and Dime List for 2015

I first started doing “five and dime” reports 13 years ago. This is a summary of games I played at least 5 or 10 times in the prior year. For many years Mark Jackson was the keeper of the aggregated Five and Dime list, and it is a fun distraction to go travel through that wormhole and see what the hotness was five to ten years ago.

I played 212 times in 2015 with a noticeable break while Julie and I traveled in Ireland. I was surprised about a few games that didn't show up on the list, but those had four plays: Jaipur, Churchill, and Viticulture.

Still, things are picking up and I'm playing more games. Julie and I are much more likely to pull out a quickie game at night now (hence our new fascination with Five Crowns, which actually doesn't suck).

Here is the list:

• Five Crowns – mainstream rummy like
• Magic: The Gathering – Isn't it amazing that 13 years ago I was mentioning that I still pull out decks made 8 years ago? Still playing with those decks today that are almost as old as my 21 year old son.
• Advanced Squad Leader – My new obsession with gaming partner Doug.
• Airborne Commander – I think I got in all five plays over a three day period. The game is tough, but fun, and I'll be playing again soon.
• Codenames – Favorite party game from 2015 and it was a hit over the holidays.
• Forbidden Desert – We still haven't figured out how to win this game yet, which is a good sign for a cooperative game (if you like dying of thirst in a sandstorm, that is). I want to keep trying to crack this one though some in my family are less enthused.
• Hanabi – This was “new to me” in 2015 and is one of the more creative games I've played lately. This is a four player puzzle game (I guess you can play with two or three but I like four) where the group needs to come up with communication conventions to share hidden information. I suspect it becomes solvable for groups that play a lot, but I enjoy introducing this to new people.