Board Game Madness 1/8

Happy new year! I took December off, mostly due to work and vacation. So we're back in earnest. I'm going to change things around a little bit this year. Based on some feedback I've gotten from some readers, there are a few things that people are mostly interested in:

Cool pics and funny tidbits
New releases and announcements
What's hitting the table

So I'll be focusing on those in the future. The new format will develop some over time. If you have any more feedback, please don't hesitate to leave some comments below!

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Fun:

• Pimp my Home: Catan rug
• Pimp my Game: How about a homemade arena for that new Sparticus game?
• Pimp my Game II: Another Power Grid market board and this one is really nice!
• Inspired game art from the Mice and Mystics game
• The top blog posts to Board Game Geek in 2012, a few highlights of which are:
• A West Side Board Game Story - a brilliant adaptation of the musical into the Euro vs. Ameritrash debate from July 2012
• A really interesting post on one man's bout with depression and how board gaming has affected it
• Top images of 2012,
• A reposting of 5 second reviews which are so funny
• If you're interested in the stats that BGG generated in 2012, they hit their 3 millionth unique user, 23m unique visits and almost 4m new games!
• BGG is nominating a number of games for possible induction into the Board Game Geek Hall of Fame. Vote now!

New Games:

• No new buzz on upcoming games that aren't on Kickstarter. I am still not sure how I want to handle this. I personally recognize the value of kickstarter, but there's so much drivel out there it's hard to tell the good from the bad and for that reason I haven't backed any projects, nor do I intend to. However, as Tom Vasel and John Clowdus (Small Box Games) have said, Kickstarter is here to stay.
• Recent releases: Mercurius, The New Science, Journalist, Urbanization, Aloha: The Spirit of Hawaii, Flame War, PURGE: The Sins of Science, Star Wars: The Card Game, Guildhall, A Fool's Fortune, Caveman: The Quest for Fire

Recently Played:

• So I've started tracking my plays on BGG as of January 1st. I have an iPhone now, so I can track the games. We'll see how long it goes.
• Leading up to New Years, there was a ton of gaming while we were on vacation in Virginia. I won't remember it all, but I played Fortune and Glory: The Cliffhanger Game, Galaxy Trucker, Small World: Underground, Setback (Pitch), Dice Town and even Jewish Fluxx.
• At our annual New Year's Gaming Eve bash, I played host most of the time, but there was a little time for Telestrations and a game of Power Grid: Spain.
• Since New Years, I've taught my son how to play Blood Bowl: Team Manager, which he promptly slaughtered me in the second time we played.
• We played a Settlers of Catan game with our friends who are semi-new to the new gaming experience
• I took my Amityville Death Rockers to 7-0 in the Long Island Blood Bowl League

Happy Gaming!

Credits: BGG, GameBugle