I’m getting frustrated with having to move boxes to access boxes in my collection, so I’ve decided to remove some games from my big box shelf.
The problem is I can’t decide which ones. As the title suggests I have room for about 15. My big box count currently stands at 24, so I need to lose 9 games. But which nine? I’m coming here for everyone’s thoughts as you’re a friendly bunch.
Current seven that are staying due to nostalgia/availability/best game ever
It seems like asking a stranger to pick the color you paint your bathroom, but I’m game (pastel green, by the way)
Kept
Ticket To Ride
Power Grid
Power Grid: Collectors Box
Power Grid: Collectors Box 2
Carcassonne (big box 6 in a normal box)
El Grande: Decennial
Quantum
Babylonia
Brass: Lancashire
Glass Road
Great Western Trail (2nd Ed)
Hansa Teutonica Big Box
Modern Art
Ra
Rallyman GT
Culled
Junk Art (admittedly your only dexterity game)
Pan Am (it’s a bit too Ticket to Ride, yeah)
Faiyum (cult of the new hype?)
Wavelength (as much as I like λ, there are smaller box party games that work well enough)
Beyond the Sun (too new to occupy those valuable spots)
The Estates (this game is flimsy; I still love it though)
Survive: Escape from Atlantis
Quest for El Dorado (deck-building isn’t broadly represented which leads me to think it may not be a favorite mechanism; there are better, more-Knizia Knizias)
Keyflower (for many people, this is a once-a-year game)
I don’t have strong feelings about most of these games (i.e. they aren’t really my sort of thing, or I haven’t played them at all). I would certainly keep Rallyman GT since it’s one of my favourites and good both as a gateway game and for long-term play. For Modern Art, have you considered switching to the Oink Games small-box version?
I am throwing in my 50 cents… I’d probably get rid of the ones easiest to reacquire, in case you change your mind, or that other people close by have a copy of that you can access with relative ease (gaming group, relatives, close friends, etc)
And also, I don’t think my copy of Brass: Lancashire is that big.I know there are two sizes going around, maybe trade for the smaller size?
Brass: Lancashire
Great Western Trail (2nd Ed)
Hansa Teutonica Big Box
Junk Art
Modern Art
Quest for El Dorado
Ra
The Estates
I really like BTS. If you’d culled it in the summer you’d have made a fortune. That and Rallyman go because they’ve both got good adaptations on BGA.
GWT is my favourite game, Quest is fantastic and can be played with anyone. Brass and Hansa are all time classics. Only played Ra online, but am very keen to get the reprint. Modern Art is a game that always has us in stitches. Not played Junk Art (forgotten I’d kept it on the list tbh!) It’s supposed to be good though. Also not played The Estates, but those that like it really like it.
However, looking at that list…Pan Am, GWT, Babylonia, Beyond the Sun, Hansa Teutonica, Faiyum and Wavelength must have all been bought within the last 2 years or less so I think I’d buy more shelves!
Big as in it can’t sit on my small game shelf. I already have the slim version
Rationally I should get rid of at least one, but none of this is rational.
Unfortunately not an option, we’re already at max shelf capacity. Any room we do find will be a home office for the totally not in plan WFH job my wife got.
If someone did offer me the £100 I kept offering it up for I’d have sold it.
I won’t weigh in on a full portfolio, but I will say that:
Babylonia
Beyond the Sun
Hansa Teutonica
Keyflower
Quest for El Dorado
These seem like games that have dozens if not hundreds of plays in them. If you are Cutting down and looking for a collection that has the most life possible, these seem like the ones that will give your collection as a whole the most mileage (kilometerage? Is there a European version of that?)
Modern Art: Can you replace it with a smaller Box version?
Great Western Trail: I really enjoy this game, but every time I play I have a sneaking suspicion that the next game won’t be as good. That hasn’t come true yet, but I feel like like there’s something not quite right. In fact I get this with all of Pfister’s titles. (Except Isle of Skye)
I find myself agreeing here almost exactly. I am not sure if I wouldn’t keep Babylonia over Ra. I have not even played GWT but I hear good things. Get the Oink version of Modern Art and rebox The Estates into a smaller version Glass Road is hard to cull but I have only ever played once at SPIEL so it goes.
“If I find someone else, preferably several people, who already love this game as much as I do, and we put it in a weekly rotation along with all the other games I love just as much, and play them all with all our endless free time, under these ideal circumstances, do I want to keep this game?”
Glass Road is hard to cull but I have only ever played once at SPIEL so it goes.