The End of Year Hullabaloo: Top five games of 2018, Number 1

December 24, 2018 David Neumann 3

And here we are, with our #1 games of 2018. I’m hoping to have a poll for the reader’s pick up today or tomorrow, but most likely Wednesday, with the announcement of the winner coming next week on New Year’s Eve. Yes, I know I said I wanted to reveal them both at the same time, but life and all that. We’re up visiting family in the northern Wisconsin woods through tomorrow, so I will definitely get back on the horse after Christmas Day. Look for the poll then and, please, have a happy and safe holiday. We’ll see you here on Wednesday!

Like Istanbul? Sign-up for Acram’s Istanbul tourney and win real stuff

December 21, 2018 David Neumann 0

iOS, Android, PC/Mac/Linux • A few weeks ago, the folks at Acram Digital noticed that our forums had a knack for running tournaments of digital board games which sparked an idea. How about we run a big Istanbul tournament and post about it on the Stately Play forums? How about we contact the publisher of the physical version and get actual board games to give away as prizes to the winners? [How about you stop asking question after question instead of, you know, actually writing something readable? -ed.] Ahem. Anyway, there’s a big Istanbul tournament in the works and you can sign-up right now to join. Real prizes are on the line, such at the Istanbul Big Box as well as just regular old Istanbul (which is great even without the expansions). Check out all the details in our forums or over at Acram’s site, where they have the official rules and legalese. Sign up, have fun, and maybe win something! In other news, all of Acram’s apps–yes, even Istanbul–are currently on sale. Links to the appropriate app stores after the jump.

The End of Year Hullabaloo: Top five games of 2018, Number 3

December 20, 2018 David Neumann 7

It’s time for our #3 games of 2018, which means that I only have a couple more days of pre-made content that I can just cut/paste while smoking big cigars [Dave doesn’t smoke -ed.] and sipping scotch [Dave doesn’t drink -ed.]. Then it’s back to the hard work that is running these digs [Dave definitely doesn’t work -ed.]. Anyway, that’s next weeks problem [Dave does have a lot of problems -ed.], so let’s get to today’s batch of goodies.

The End of Year Hullabaloo: Top five games of 2018, Number 5

December 18, 2018 David Neumann 8

The hardest part of putting together these end of year articles isn’t searching down links or trying to find a good trailer, it’s writing these damn introductions. Therefore, this year, I’ve decided that I’m going to do the absolute bare minimum and leave these intros as short as possible so you can bite right into the chewy middle. [In other words, you’re too lazy to put together a couple hundred words and are going to make it look like you’re doing us a favor by sitting on your ass and doing nothing? Normally, I’d say this is utter crap, but considering the way you write, I have to agree that less is more. -ed.]

Meteorfall expands with just released Queen of Shadows content

December 18, 2018 David Neumann 5

iOS Universal, Android • I’m currently putting together our top five lists for the End of Year Hullabaloo and, while I don’t want to drop any spoilers, you may see Meteorfall pop up once or twice. Just to be clear, I collected those lists before the latest mega-patch dropped, which introduces a new skin, new cards, and new Meteorfall goodness. Say hello to the Queen of Shadows.

The revolution has begun; Tropico is now on iPad

December 18, 2018 David Neumann 4

iPad • We’ve known about Feral‘s iPad port of the beloved banana republic-builder, Tropico for some time now, first learning of its existence back in June. It’s been six months, but Tropico arrived today for our trusty tablets and, if you want some details, head past the jump.

The End of Year Hullabaloo: And so it begins…

December 17, 2018 David Neumann 9

When we kindled Stately Play from the smoldering ashes of things that were, we did so with a few things in mind. Firstly, we weren’t going to try and replicate the magic from days gone by. The previous eleven months had demonstrated it wasn’t possible without Owen in the driver’s seat. Secondly, while games would always be front and center, SP was going to be an open and free place where we could talk about whatever the hell we wanted to. I’m not sure anyone encapsulates that as much as Alex and Tof who, in our Friday scrying articles, will often highlight games that are either 20 years old or so indie that most other sites don’t even know they exist. Most of all, we wanted SP to be a place where a bunch of friends–who’ve never actually met in person–could get together every day, share, learn, or just talk about the stuff that interests them. So far, I think we’ve done okay. We don’t get the clicks we used to pull at that old site, but I think we’re all a hell of a lot happier and I’m too old to care about much more than that. Why am I talking about this today, when I should be introducing our End of the Year shenanigans? Going over the writers’ lists, it dawned on me that they’re pretty perfect from a Stately Play point of view. I think other sites would be terrified to have a 3 year-old game appear on their Best Of list, but if we liked it and can justify its inclusion, who the hell am I to stop it [you’re the editor, dumbass. Oh..I mean, I’m the editor. You’re the owner? Wait, who the hell are you? -ed.] So, here goes nothing. Today we’ll cover games that we wished we could have included in our top 5’s, but didn’t quite make the cut. Tomorrow we’ll get into the lists, proper.

Stately Scrying: What we’re playing this weekend

December 14, 2018 David Neumann 15

It’s a late, late night version of our look into our gaming future this week. Sorry for the delayed post! I’d try to write something witty [and, undoubtedly fail-ed.], but I know it’s late and we should just get down to business. Onward, Players!

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