Skip to main content

Creating a Board Game Collection

Just under 10 years ago, I played my first "modern" or "euro" board game. This game, like it was for many people exposed to this hobby, was Settler of Catan, now simply known as Catan. I was instantly taken aback by how different this game was compared to what I thought board games were and had to go out and get a copy for myself. And the expansions. Shortly after this, a friend introduced me to Agricola and some research led me to discovering the BoardGameGeek website and and a seemingly endless number of board games that I just needed to have. In the ten years since, my collection has expanded vastly while Catan now sits dusty on a shelf in another house.


This collection expansion is more of a collection explosion. Especially over the last year or two, the number of high profile games being released is amazing with many new games breaking into the Top 100 on BoardGameGeek each year and displacing old favorites. Kickstarter has given rise to extreme hype for independent games that I have been swept up in many times. It truly is a Golden Age for board games, which in turn has led me to my current predicament.

I think it is time to re-evaluate my entire collection, which means I perhaps need to cull some of my games and evaluate what games are the basis of a good "collection" and that I need to have. Friends and family also sometimes ask me what games they should be starting or expanding their collection with. So I will be putting together short reviews for various games I've played and then determining if they should be part of a board game collection.  However, because sometimes one collection does not fit all, I thought I would create a few different collections, as summarized below:

Gateway: light-weight games that are good for people who are just getting started with modern board games


Middleweight: middle-weight games that are a step-up from gateway but without the time commitment or brain-burning of heavier games

Heavyweight: heavy-weight games that either require more thinking or time or have rules that are not easy to digest

Essentials: a well-rounded group of games taking into consideration variations in weight, theme, and mechanics

Collector: similar to Essentials, but with additional options in each category for an expanded collection

Games that I review will likely fall into more than one collection. And as I review more games, I might create new collections if there are just too many good games - maybe collections focused on themes or mechanics. Hopefully these will be useful to people looking to start their own collection and to myself as I figure out which games I should keep and which I should trade for something else!


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review #27: Ultimate Werewolf: Deluxe Edition

# of Players:  5-75 Playtime:  30-60 Minutes Core Mechanic:  Deduction Theme:  Werewolf Type:  Party Weight:  Light Year:  2014 Rating: 7.5* This was the first social deduction game that I played and the most memorable social deduction moments may have come from playing this game - and I may never play it again. I'll elaborate on that more in a bit, but it in no way reflects on the quality of the game, which is very, very good. This game opened up the entire genre to me which is now a party staple and most deduction games can probably trace a big part of their game back to Werewolf. I might have played Mafia a couple times with a deck of regular playing cards, which is very similar to Werewolf, but the fact that I'm not certain just shows how much of an impact Werewolf had by comparison. There are two teams in this game - Werewolves and Villagers. The goal for the villagers is to eliminate the werewolves while the goal for...
Post a Comment
Read more

Expansion Mini-Review #2: Hive: Ladybug/Mosquito/Pillbug

The three mini expansions for Hive are even too small to review on their own in this format so I have lumped them together. In my opinion, Ladybug is the weakest of the three while Pillbug is the strongest and Mosquito is somewhere in the middle. Let's explore why! Ladybug Per the BoardGameGeek description, "The Ladybug moves three spaces; two on top of the Hive, then one down." This is a good piece because it can slip into the spots that are almost completely surrounded and being able to climb onto the hive gives it a lot of flexibility. When I mentioned earlier that it is the weakest of the three, it is only because it is not as interesting as the other two. The piece is still very powerful in terms of maneuverability, especially compared to the Spider which must move around the outside of the hive with its three space move. Mosquito Once the Mosquito is placed into the Hive, it copies the ability of any piece that it touches. For example, if it begins its tur...
Post a Comment
Read more

Review #34: The Resistance - Avalon

# of Players:  5-10 Playtime:  30-60 Minutes Core Mechanic:  Deduction Theme:  Medieval Type:  Party Weight:  Light Year:  2012 Rating: 9* After I discovered Ultimate Werewolf and played it many times, I started looking out for other social deduction games. The Resistance was a game that was just released and was receiving rave reviews. Of course, the game I am reviewing in this post isn't The Resistance but instead its follow-up The Resistance: Avalon; still, I thought it would be helpful to provide a bit of background. Anyway, my original plays of The Resistance fell flat for the group I was playing with but I saw the potential based on the rules and was still looking to try it some more. Then I found out about the Avalon re-theme and that it added some special characters to help boost the game a bit. There are two factions in the game - Good and Evil. To win the game, members of Good must complete three quests successfu...
Post a Comment
Read more