2019 Mastery Challenge

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Once again, the yearly Mastery Challenge. Last year was heavily career-focused, so the mastery goals were limited to acheiving H-index 13. This 2019 will be similar, the goal to acheive H-index 14. As in 2018, I'm sure to play a few other game to stay well positioned for H-index 15 in 2020. This is good because it keeps me from getting too bored with any particular game.

Here are the challenges from 2016, 2017, and 2018:

Due to career commitments, the only goal for 2019 is getting H-index to 14. This should not be difficult.

2019-12-29: Current average plays for count of owned games: 779 / 111 = 7.01.

December 15, 2019

Almost surely not going to get to H-index 14, just don't have the interest and energy combination to revisit any of the candidate games. Maybe next year.

October 20, 2019

Ironically, since writing at the end of August, if anything I've slowed down playing, with one game of LotR card between then and today's Khe Sanh game. On the other hand, the plants are mostly ready for winter, with just a few more to repot and take cutting from. And the apartment is in pretty clean shape.

August 31, 2019

I'm intending on picking up the pace of game playing through the rest of the year. Having people over once a month or so since June has motivated me to really start deep cleaning the apartment. It's a sad task in some sense, but the important thing is I'm putting in the effort, and it's showing. The apartment is markedly cleaner and more comfortable, on average, than it's been in many, many years. Through the remaining 4 months of the year, I'd like to get some OCS on the table, Ukraine '43, and perhaps one of the campaigns in Silver Bayonet. That's actually quite a lot game play, but it seems doable. I'm going to be running out of daylight in the evening very soon, which will be a huge bummer, but so it goes.

H-index

  1. 116/101 Lord of the Rings LCG will almost surely remain my most-played game in 2019. I don't have any more than a vague notion of trying to finish the Dwarrowdelf cycle. There are a couple of pretty hard quests, could take me a big chunk of the year.

  2. 63/63 Hive No plans to play Hive this year. Too engrossing and I cannot bear to play it badly.

  3. 44/39 Ogre with the G3 and S3 maps coming out, Ogre will definitely get some play.

  4. 31/30 Zombie Dice May catch a few games here and there, I usually pack it along when I go to other places to play.

  5. 27/27 PanzerBlitz Nothing planned for this year, might drag it out on a whim. Stranger things have happened.

  6. 24/23 Star Realms With the FLGS closing down, I no longer have a regular opponent for Star Realms. It's small enough to travel though, so perhaps I'll get a play or two in.

  7. 20/15 Race for the Galaxy is always good for a few random plays here and there. If I end up getting sick in bed (doesn't happen often), this would something I'd play online during that time.

  8. 20/20 Silver Bayonet Another casualty of losing the local game store venue. I don't see myself setting it up for solo, but who knows what 2019 will bring?

  9. 19/18 Fire in the Lake Had a good run with Fire in the Lake in 2018, but again, it's that venue problem. We'll see what happens.

  10. 17/17 6 Nimmt! Another game I'll just tote along in case of a group which wants to play.

  11. 15/15 Cathedral I've found out the game is solved, which reduces my interest in purchasing it. If I find a free copy I may take it and see if I can't work out the solution.

  12. 13/13 Ogre: Objective 218 Will probably get a solo play or two in this year. This is a good game to play when doing chores.

  13. 13/13 Vietnam Solitaire Time to start using the Special Edition Rules. Most of the time I play using standard rules.

  14. 12/12 Battle for Moscow I still haven't really cracked this game in the same way I cracked Target Leningrad. Would be worth playing a few times to really see how to win it as the Germans.

  15. 12/10 Hapsburg Eclipse Good chance this will get back into rotation this year. I think I've playing it wrong for a long time, and I want to try out some new strategies. This is another game which fits well in between chores.

  16. 12/12 Objective Kiev I've cracked the German side, now to figure out how to win as the Soviets.

  17. 12/12 Pandemic My usual partner for this game is no longer a gaming opponent or partner. If I play it this year, it will be with the In The Lab expansion.

  18. 12/12 Soviet Dawn Time to revisit for a few plays.

  19. 12/12 StarForce Would like to play the solitaire situation several more times, at different locations.

  20. 12/12 Target Leningrad probably won't see a play in 2019, would prefer to bring The Arduous Beginning into rotation, which only has three plays at the moment.

  21. 11/11 Leaving Earth Will almost surely get played. I really like the game, I can set it up and leave it for a period of time, and it's easy to document play via spreadsheet. Also, I have not yet played the Stations Expansion, which seems like an obvious thing to do this year.

  22. 10/10 Flash Point I almost always play this solo, it's something good for chores days.

  23. 9/8 OCS Managed to play through the learning scenario in Burma.

  24. 7/7 France '40 Probably won't play this year as it's pretty involved and there are other things I want to do instead. I do have an interest in developing smaller scenarios for the game.

  25. 6/2 Android:Netrunner is a new entry this year. I have a dedicated opponent for the game, so I suspect I'll see a lot more plays of it over the next year as well.

  26. 1/1 COIN Would like to get a play of Cuba Libre in this year.

Wargame-specific H-index

My wargame-specific H-index started 2019 at 10. Wargames are so much more time consuming that this index will increase much, much more slowly than the overall H-index. And that's fine. I expect Ottoman Sunset, Phantom Leader Deluxe and The Arduous Beginning to climb in 2019.

  1. 44 Ogre
  2. 27 PanzerBlitz
  3. 20 Silver Bayonet
  4. 19 Fire in the Lake
  5. 13 Vietnam Solitaire
  6. 12 Battle for Moscow
  7. 12 Objective Kiev
  8. 12 Soviet Dawn
  9. 12 StarForce
  10. 12 Target Leningrad
  11. 12 Hapsburg Eclipse
  12. 9 OCS
  13. 7 France '40
  14. 5 Phantom Leader
  15. 3 The Arduous Beginning
  16. 2 Ottoman Sunset
  17. 2 Winter War
  18. 1 COIN
  19. 1 Combat Commander
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What to play next?

Deciding what to play next is always a tough call when faced with a closet full of games, all of which were purchased with intent to play. Here's one I'm dealing with the decision.

  • Something New: this means both something new to me and a game which has been published recently, within the last two or three years.
  • Something Classic: I've acquired a number of games properly considered "classic" which haven't yet been played. The current example would be PanzerGruppe Guderian.
  • Something Again: mastery requires constant practice, which means playing games many, many times to allow nuance to appear.
  • Something Vietnam: as I'm on a Vietnam binge. I don't have all the Vietnam games ever published, but I can say that I have a lot of them, and probably more than most people.
  • Something Obscure: as it's fun to poke around in the dustier corners of game design.
  • Something Different: break away from the same old publishers and try a game from one of the new kids on the block. Or, conversely, dip into legacy with a classic tried and true.
  • Something Light: once in a while it's nice to actually finish a game all the way through in one sitting, in an hour or two.
  • Something Heavy: if possible, it's nice to set up something big and complicated which can be left out for days or weeks or even months, for a leisurely stroll through a very large or long game.

There are surely many more ways to choose, but the above method keeps me busy enough, helps me get both breadth and depth into my play, and provides me with a sense of progress.

The odd man out

When there is an odd man out:

  • Have a solo game ready to play.
  • Keep score or advise on a game in progress.
  • Referee a game in progress.