I sold my copy of Planet Unknown, wasn’t really enjoying it (I can’t think of any polyominoes game I like).
About a week after I sold it, I saw someone else sell theirs for twice what I sold mine for, did not realise it would be worth that much more.
If anyone in the UK is interested in buying Planet Unknown, Card Vault have it for ~£55. My friend had pre-ordered it and it arrived today, so even less reason for me to buy it!
What was the game several of you were talking about maybe a year ago? There were 4-8 personalities you could play as and I believe you were trying to set up a trading post or some kind of mercantile operation on an island?
Sounds like, possibly, Merchants Cove?
That looks right.
It seems like there was a lot of chatter, everyone was getting their copies, trying it out, and then nothing. How did opinions play out on Merchants Cove?
Funny you should mention it!
I played the base game merchants a few times solo last fall, but decided that it had potential as a game I could explore with my partner.
In the meantime, I did pledge for the new big box expansion, and had thrown the other 3 add-on merchants onto my wishlist for when they would get restocked. A couple of weeks ago, I saw a big Merchants Cove bundle on a geeklist auction that was an unbelievable deal, so I had to go for it. Long story short, I now have 2 copies of the base game and The Secret Stash mini-expansion, along with two copies of the big box expansion coming via Kickstarter (one for the copy I pledged for, 1 for the copy that came with the auction bundle), and all 3 of the add-on merchants.
Unfortunately, one of the add-on merchants arrived missing some components, so I haven’t posted about it in recent purchases as I await the resolution of that particular issue.
It’s not a great euro game. But it’s fun and quick and light. It’s not going to win any awards. I think it fits in my collection because it features a singular thing: the option for one player to deep-dive on a specific merchant while another player, for instance (me) can explore the wide array of different options… and that won’t really interfere with the first player’s enjoyment of their merchant-deep-dive because the merchants don’t interact directly with the mini games each one is playing on the side.
I would also mention that there is an official Tabletop Simulator mod for Merchants Cove Base game and I think you can run it for anywhere between 1-4 players (to play 5 players you need a 5th merchant, which isn’t provided in the base game).
And another copy of Roads & Boats, surely?
Perfect. I don’t know why this was all over my brain today. Sounds (still) like a game I want to play but not own. Unfortunately I don’t really get to play ANY games I don’t own. Maybe down the pike.
When I went to our FLGS to look to spend my birthday money (wound up ordering Earth, should be back in stock in 2-3 weeks, yay!), I spotted Rocketmen, by Martin Wallace.
Maryse and I are both very keen on Brass: Birmingham, by the same designer, would that be a good indication of if we’d enjoy this one?
Thanks!
I think Brass: Birmingham is a looser design of Lancashire but still excellent. Rocketmen is vastly different and I didn’t like it at all.
Theres a PYL rocket launch mechanism that doesn’t work as well as it should and a lack of money cards in the later parts of the deck (IMHO).
All right, so liking one does not indicate the other will be to our tastes. Thanks for the info! 
I backed Rocketmen back when it was on KS. It is a pretty big square box with a large board and a smallish deck-builder with too few cards inside. I have been trying to sell my copy for a while. I don‘t even remember if I managed to get rid of it.
If you want a space race simulation try to get your hands on Leaving Earth. If you want a deck-builder: There are tons of better deckbuilders and this has nothing to do with Brass et al.
Definitely a try-before-buy or watch reviews and if you are still interested then… you can probably get a used copy cheaply.
I generally don’t get on with Martin Wallace games but I haven’t noticed people talking about Rocketmen tge way they do either Brass, or Wildlands.
Thanks all! Really appreciate the insights!
More a general question and probably for @yashima but heading to Cologne on Wednesday for a few days. Any games in German that don’t have an English translation that are 1 relatively easy to translate and 2 unmissable?
By relatively easy I mean there is already an English fan translation somewhere and/or pointing google translate at it should work …
The problem is that most of the new stuff will be out for Essen.
Some might have been out for Nürnberger Spielwarenmesse.
I am not currently aware of anything that matches your description.
You might check out the BGG Spiel Preview because some of the games that are listed there will already be available in stores. (I just scrolled through most of the German games announced and … nothing). Age of Innovation is announced for August. But that might be a case of wanting to wait for English rules. And I am assuming it will be released in several languages at the same time. I seem to remember some new 2F stuff is announced for „right now“. Those often have German and English rules.
The only other thing I can recommend is that the used-games market includes a bunch of old SdJ that are out of print and not always easy to find elsewhere for example Thurn und Taxis. (I would have added T&E but as that is getting a reprint soonish…). Check Kleinanzeigen.de if you are interested in anything that might be available for pickup in Cologne.
I mean if you are into that Dorfromantik just won SdJ. I haven‘t played. I am not sure it is available elsewhere. My FLGS had a stack of copies. Every bigger shop will have it. (Also use forum search to find where we have talked about it on here. The talk wasn‘t too favorable I think)
If you cannot find a FLGS check for Thalia. Bookstore chain that has a somewhat okay boardgame selection. And sometimes even good prices.
PS: we recently talked about the German edition for No Thanks being called Schöne Scheisse and packaged in a way smaller box. If you are into small box card games you can definitely check both Thalia and the Müller chain (and any FLGS) for games from Amigo et al… keep a search open to check which games are which 
You could always get the pretty German edition of Sushi Go 
PPS: Anfahrt - Spielbrett this seems to be a not small Boardgame Shop in Cologne. More:
You want to search for „Brettspiele“
As for FLGS, I can recommend Brave New World in Cologne. They have an interesting selection of games!
