Board Game Friday: July 2023 Board Game Plays Recap!

July is always a bittersweet month for me.  It's a month full of summer fun but by the time the month is over I have to switch my brain back into "work mode."  The good news for this year is that I got a lot of game playing in during the month of July, almost all of which included my son.  For the visual, here's my July games played:

Yeah, that's a lot!  I ended up playing 102 games, 90 of which included my son.  Thanks to a particularly strong July 31, my son even got to 20 different game titles played for the month, no small feat for a five-year-old!  

For the math nerds among us, our h-index for the month of July was 7!  That means that there were seven different games that we played at least seven times during the month.  Though, to be fair, my son's h-index would only be six as my seventh game was Food Chain Island which is a solo game.  

Overall, I ended up playing a total of 24 different games spread across 29 of the 31 days in July.  Of those 24 games, 10 were new (to me).  Some I traded for while at least one (Kingdomino: Origins) my son and I played at our local game store using their demo library (we've found that to be a great way to try out new games without always having to buy them or trade for them).  

Now, a closer look at my Top 9 games played for the month:

Did you notice?  Something finally unseated Ticket to Ride for the number 1 spot on the most played list for the month!  Yep, I traded for Kingdomino and my son has loved that game.  Of course, it helps that the game plays quickly so we can get a few plays in during the same amount of time as a full Ticket to Ride game.  Still, 20 plays is a lot for one game in a month and I, for one, am happy to have that be something other than a Ticket to Ride variant.  Of course, there are still three different Ticket to Ride games in my Top 9 for the month so it's not like we've totally abandoned that style of game!  I should note that Isle of Trains:  All Aboard is actually a card game and isn't anything at all like Ticket to Ride (besides a general "train" theme, of course).

All told, July 2023 is one for the record books!  I'm 99% certain that I won't have another month this year with numbers like I had for July.  All that said, I think the best part is that both my son and myself are still enjoying board games...and now we've even got my wife into playing a few of them and I think she's enjoying them too!