The 33×3 2015 Challenge was simple – play 33 games 3 times each within the calendar year. after four months I was a little ahead of my goal, having played 37 of my total 99 plays.

But by the end of December I had added just nine to that total, failing to get even half my goal. So what went wrong – and why am I trying it again?

I managed to get all three plays of only eight games. Dead of Winter I was reviewing so had to play; Ingenious, Divinare,  Kingdom Builder and Alhambra are shortish family games which are easy to get to the table; Through the Ages and Tzolk’in are more complex but equally popular, while Artus I banged through on a trip to Eastbourne.

At the other end of the scale, eight games didn’t get played at all. These were either heavy on rules overhead/play time so hard to teach/get to the table, or games I didn’t like enough to fight for (20th Century, Industry). In between were a bunch of games that probably would’ve gotten the three plays in different circumstances – or that one was enough for.

So what went wrong?

Two obvious things got in the way of completing this challenge which I’ve covered enough in other posts (the end of a relationship and the influx of review copies of games). But one other factor was important: I hadn’t picked the right games.

Quite a lot of the titles on the list I’d picked because either I hadn’t played them, or I’d played them once or twice. This isn’t sound reasoning to try and get them played three times each – especially when I love loads of games that got played once last year, or not at all. It’s crazy to think I prioritised lesser games over favourites because of a challenge!

Sure it made the challenge harder, but not at an expense I want to repeat. And of course, this is in hindsight – I had no idea what was going to happen to me during 2015, so couldn’t have predicted how much my playing hours – and what I was going to have to play – was going to change.

The 33×3 Challenge 2016

So below is my list for 2016. I’ve gone for my current favourites, some games I know my friends love, plus some games I know I’ll be reviewing in the next few months.

To make it a bit of a challenge I have left out very short games, plus games I know I’ll play regularly (so no Ticket to Ride, Love Letter or Race for the Galaxy).

And if I’m honest, I think I’m going to fail again. These are mostly long games and the chances of getting them all played three times is slim – but as long as I play them all at least once this year, I’ll be happy:

1. Mombasa
2. New York 1901
3. My Village
4. The Prodigal’s Club
5. Tash-Kalar: Arena of Legends
6. Concordia
7. Keyflower
8. Through the Ages
9. Treasure Hunter
10. The Bloody Inn
11. Terra Mystica
12. Ra
13. Deus
14. Downfall of Pompeii
15. Tzolk’in
16. Snowdonia
17. Copycat
18. Navegador
19. Bora Bora
20. Merchant of Venus
21. Yspahan
22. Blueprints
23. CV
24. Entdecker
25. Caverna
26. Africana
27. Lords of Vegas
28. Johari
29. Power Grid
30. The Boss
31. Celestia
32. Codenames
33. The Dwarves

Care to join me?

If you want to join the challenge, simply post your own list of games in the comments below and keep me posted! I’ll probably put mine on BGG again too, and link from the old one above.

Or book me in for a game if any of these are your favourites – who knows, maybe I can even come see you in a ‘Dave Gorman vs the Rest of the World’ stylee. I’m certainly hoping to get out and about to a bit more gaming this year.

I’ll probably update this post on occasion with progress reports too you lucky, lucky people.