ImaginEric

BG Stats Feb 2026 Plays: 77 H-index: 5 Games: 17 New: 1 Players: 175 Locations: 1 Hours: 57 Days: 27 Space Base: 34 Castle Combo: 10 Abandon All Artichokes: 6 The Castles of Burgundy: 5 Mountain Goats: 5 Super Mega Lucky Box: 4 Pondscape: 3 Lost Ruins of Arnak: 1 Heat: Pedal to the Metal: 1 22 categories: Card Game: 58% Animals: 23% Dice: 17% Fantasy: 17%. 45 mechanics: Hand Management: 47% Open Drafting: 35% Deck, Bag, and Pool Building: 23% Race: 23% Set Collection: 23%.

Still found time for some BGA games.

BG Stats Feb 2026 Plays: 25 H-index: 2 Games: 9 New: 4 Players: 11 Locations: 4 Hours: 15 Days: 11 Dice Throne: 12 Sorcery: Contested Realm: 6 Aquaria: 1 No Loose Ends: 1 Star Trek: Star Realms Core Set: 1 Citizens of the Spark: 1 Sauros: 1 Botswana: 1 Yahtzee: 1 15 categories: Card Game: 88% Animals: 33% Fighting: 33% Dice: 22%. 28 mechanics: Hand Management: 33% Set Collection: 33% Deck, Bag, and Pool Building: 22% Dice Rolling: 22% Open Drafting: 22%.

Not a lot of time to play in person during February but still managed to get some good ones in.

Niceness is like a candle. It provides a bit of light, but if you’re freezing, it’s not much help. Kindness is the warmth of a fireplace on a freezing cold night.

Both are, well, nice… but one of them is necessary.

Made my first deck for Sorcery Contested Realm. Hoping to try it out soon. Can’t wait to learn how terrible it really is. But I bet I still have fun playing.

A hooded axe-wielding Executioner stands atop a set of steps with "This machine kills tyrants" written on them

Rewatching ANDOR and following politics leads to some dark ideas that may feel like hope.
Inspired by Frazetta's Executioner and Woody Guthrie's guitar

I hear you. The stockholders are the primary customer, the earnings are the only metric that matters.
Employees are numbers and expensive numbers, so why not just pay 2 to do the work of 3?
Capitalism is killing (most of) us.

My first two Sorcery: Contested Realm purchases: the Gothic preconstructed decks and a box of Arthurian Legends booster packs.

Welp, guess I’m a @sorcerytcg.bsky.social player now.

I want to thank people who took the time to read the document and watch the video I shared. It is also important to me that it is understood: I do not believe Matthew, Paula, Monique or Naveen (or anyone else) had involvement (or awareness) of the actions the owner of Game Night Picks took. 1/4

🧵👇

Zoom in of the thresher shark picture which shows its face with a concerned or shocked expression

Definitely looks as if he just heard some out of pocket stuff

And whatever the AI produces will probably be riddled with errors.

“Together we are America.”

BREAKING: The Epstein survivors are releasing this ad on this Super Bowl Sunday to send the message that they will not “move on” from the largest sex trafficking scandal in the world. #standwithsurvivors

America really needs “None of the above” as an option for every election.

March 28: No thrones, no crowns, no kings

Put it on your calendar today. Tell your family and friends. The next No Kings protest is Saturday, March 28.
We were 7 million strong in October. We can be even stronger in March.

Man, now I want to pull my MZ off the shelf.

I think that is valid. Perfectly fine if people buy a game for a bit of “retail therapy” & the pleasure of opening, organizing, learning & (hopefully eventually) playing a game.

The issue comes when going to a convention & buying too many games just because they are “hot”. A mistake I’ve made.

Two CBP Agents Identified in Alex Pretti Shooting The two federal immigration agents who fired on Minneapolis protester Alex Pretti are identified in government records as Border Patrol agent Jesus Ochoa and Customs and Border Protection officer Raym...

BREAKING: The two federal immigration agents who fired on Minneapolis protester Alex Pretti are identified in government records as Border Patrol agent Jesus Ochoa and Customs and Border Protection officer Raymundo Gutierrez.

OFPG always keeps it real. I appreciate them so much.

YouTube video by Bangers Project What Board Game Conventions Do To Your Brain

I’ve definitely been guilty of buying way too many games at conventions. Interesting video for sure.

youtu.be/agEl3nJZ0gk?...

BG Stats Jan 2026 Plays: 130 H-index: 6 Games: 27 New: 3 Players: 245 Locations: 1 Hours: 93 Days: 30 Space Base: 46 Toy Battle: 18 Abandon All Artichokes: 9 The Castles of Burgundy: 8 Super Mega Lucky Box: 8 Castle Combo: 8 Pondscape: 6 Skull King: 3 Jump Drive: 3 38 designers: Paolo Mori: 7% Thomas Lehmann: 7% Adam Hill: 3% Alan Stone: 3%. 63 mechanics: Hand Management: 40% Open Drafting: 37% Set Collection: 25% Solo / Solitaire Game: 25% Tile Placement: 25%.

BGA plays. Toy Battle is the perfect BGA game for me as I wouldn’t get it played much IRL.
As for card tableau games go, I give Castle Combo the edge over Pondscape.

BG Stats Jan 2026 Plays: 34 H-index: 2 Games: 16 New: 7 Players: 17 Locations: 4 Hours: 22 Days: 17 Dice Throne: 12 FlipToons: 3 The Druids of Edora: 2 Etherstone: 2 Fantastic Factories: 2 Thunder Road: Vendetta: 2 River Valley Glassworks: 2 Cthulhu: Dark Providence: 1 SETI: Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence: 1 32 designers: Paolo Mori: 12% Aaron Hein: 6% Adam Hill: 6% Alessandro Zucchini: 6%. 49 mechanics: Area Majority / Influence: 31% Dice Rolling: 31% Hand Management: 31% Open Drafting: 31% End Game Bonuses: 25%.

January physical plays. Dice Throne might be solidified as my second favorite game.

Journalist Georgia Fort has been released from custody (video @fox9mn.bsky.social)

A++++

Catherine O'Hara Dead at 71 Catherine O'Hara -- famous for her work in "Schitt's Creek," "Home Alone," and "Best In Show" -- is dead ... TMZ has learned.

Man, one last gut punch from January 2026

www.tmz.com/2026/01/30/c...

LIVE NOW: It's my birthday live stream! Let's hang out and play games! #boardgames

Watch on YouTube and Twitch!

YouTube: www.youtube.com/@ruelgaviola
Twitch: www.twitch.tv/ruelgaviola

In September 2025, these board games hit the market:

• Welcome to…the Dark Underbelly of the Board Game Hobby
• Tyrants of the Underdark Underbelly
• Underbelly Cities
• Tastes Like Freedom Five: A Sentinel Comics Board Game

Darwin’s Journey made my brain tired. Every turn I was racking my brain for which move I should make.

Maybe I’m just dumb though.

I was trying to think of what he was referring to but those were late July/August, immediately before and right after GenCon.

I think maybe he is referencing Charlie Kirk? Who knows. Nor do I really care what he considers a “dark underbelly”.