I had to go back - it looks like July 13 was the day I posted I was done with the growing season of my collection, and wondered how long it would last.
Here we are, November 11th, and … 19 purchases later? That works out to more than 1 per week. Boy.
But. But but BUT! In my defense:
Three are expansions. I think we can all agree that The Crew: Mission Deep Sea is an expansion to the first game. Ticket to Ride: Asia has been on my radar for maybe 5 years and just came back into stock, so that can be grandfathered according to section 3.31b of the wishlist articles. And finally I was playing around with Quacks of Quedlinburg and immediately found Herb Witches for a trifling $27; the worse crime would have been passing it over. Regardless, expansions that fit into parent boxes never apply to “no more purchases” pledges.
Also, Silver Amulet (so grossly overpriced in the open market) was free, in trade for another game I also got for free, so that’s more an annexation than a purchase.
Here’s everything else, and who I blame for it:
Eclipse Second Dawn: This one’s on @pillbox. I’d decided I didn’t need it, but he posted about availability and I happened to be in the middle of reading about galactic scale conflict in a Vernor Vinge novel.
Mission: Red Planet: I always wondered which is better, Libertalia or this one. Someone on Reddit had the gall to say M:RP when I already own Libertalia, forcing me to buy it and form my own opinion. Found it local used for $17.
Lost Ruins of Arnak: I don’t actually want this one. I’m not sure what happened. It came back into stock and then it was in my house? Has this ever happened to you?
Tyrants of the Underdark: This is one I’ve wanted since Paul Dean’s text review. I passed it up at the time due to limited budget and aversion to the theming. I still have a limited budget and aversion to the demon and aberration decks but I think when I couldn’t have it, I reacted like a dog watching another dog carry a stick. Now it’s my stick and I’m running into the creek with it.
The King is Dead 2e: This one’s on @Captbnut and @lalunaverde and possibly some others who played it and posted. I’m a whore for role playing games - not RPGs, but games that require you to act and bluff and lie and get inside their head. Circular game theory. I’d never heard about this one - when I did it was a same-day purchase.
Red Cathedral: My friend mentioned almost buying it. I had a hold order with free shipping growing. That’s… the whole story. I mean, it’s so SMALL!
Orleans: I can’t recall the rabbit trail that led to this. Probably Reddit’s fault again. I thought the Mrs might enjoy it and at a certain point it was easier to buy than to keep thinking about it. Also, Trade & Intrigue because it is reportedly necessary and objectively affordable.
The Coupon Saga
So most of this was happening over on Gamenerdz, and Boardlandia somehow got a whiff of it. They sent me 10% off and begged me to come back to them. I told them no, we had our time together. But then there was TTR: Asia and I realized my sister-in-law would like Wingspan for Christmas. Which meant I needed to complete a full hold order…
Cascadia: If you think this might have been your fault, it probably is. At some point there was a big flurry about this over on the “Games played” thread. I’m not sure I love it the way the reviews have, but I like a calming puzzle and I can certainly find people to play with. And the coupon.
Parks: I couldn’t decide between Cascadia and Parks. I thought I’d like Parks better but YOU ALL liked Cascadia. Again, purchasing both was the empirical pathway and I’m nothing if not Science.
At this point the bastards at Boardlandia told me I’d earned $10 off. I mean, come on…
Search for Planet X: So here was the plan. I have Cryptid. My friend has Planet X. We play both, everyone’s happy, right? Right? Too many ecstatic session posts over on the other thread and a burgeoning solo habit, plus a Boardlandia Halloween sale.
Fields of Arle: An object in motion cannot be stopped and the boxes were in motion. I think there was a siphon mechanism where new games were being pulled into my cart at this point? Honestly, my mind was on soloing. This has been on my mind for years, as Odin didn’t delight me the way I hoped it would. Another “buy to try” game and we’ll see if it can knock something else out.
The Great Zimbabwe: Absolutely the fault of @lalunaverde and @EnterTheWyvern . I had always though this was a COIN game and never looked into it. You two showed me where the rabbit trail started and I followed it, finding it led directly to my shrine of favorite games. Sold, to the man with no more cabinet space.
Formosa Tea: I think I already wrote about this one. This one doesn’t count as it is clearly a gift for the Taiwanese half of my family. They are all excited and I’m along for the ride.
Great Plains: We’ll see. 100% impulse and the siphon is in full effect. I love area control and 2p is just such an easy player count these days.
With no confidence at all, I say again I think I’m done. Boardlandia is now running 15% off everything and I don’t even want it. I’m also floating in a warm bath of new boxes and have run out of shelves.
edit: It was early October, but I think it actually started with Alpacas. I was mulling on Alpacas for an unknown reason, then began wondering if the Altiplano/Orleans debate had ever reached consensus? Then Orleans was available for preorder… this is sounding familiar.
And once again the thread turns into a confessional
I am honored to have my own section—even though I feel I am not to blame for Formosa Tea I feel like I should be playing Fields of Arle more—I only got the expansion earlier this year but haven‘t played it yet. The box has become even more daunting with the additional materials. Obviously also not playing enough Parks.
As for Zimbabwe… I blame everyone here and everywhere for having 2 Splotter games preordered (apparently the ship has arrived and direct preorders are being mailed out since late October—stupid me preordered from a shop so still waiting).
As expected, I return. I took advantage of the Boardlandia 15% off site wide sale (and my gift card) to order Ankh with Pantheon and Guardians.
The US prices are already noticeably better than Canadian (which is actually somewhat rare), plus the 15% made it the best time for me to grab one of the few KS campaigns I genuinely regret passing on.
Hoping they get the Pharoah expansion up for preorder before the sale ends at the end of the month. Seems to be highly recommended for 2 players.
Somewhere on their website or on their BGG forums they talked about how it was all going. They apparently have a lot of direct preorders and mailing out has been slow. I expect they are mailing all the “easy” more local packages first and putting Japan and other “complicated” destinations. I have no idea how big Splotter is but it feels like kind of a 2 person thing at times and with boardgames being more popular than ever they may have been a bit surprised with the amount of games sold.
Also… they got more copies of Zimbabwe than they expected? How does that happen?
Sadly, they used to print locally apparently but that company went broke due to the pandemic.
Mass Transit: the SUSD preview some time ago convinced me this was a small coop I had to try
Condottiere: fomo caused by both this place and the SUSD review. Turns out btw that this was available because it is the Spanish edition. Ah well… I can download the rulebook. My Spanish is almost as good as my Italian (despite being in Spanish club for 3 years in school).
Tournament of Avalon: SUSD card game round up from last year made me look at this first. Then it went OOP for a good while and I decided I was done hunting for it. Then I stumbled across the Spacebiff review and a few days later mysteriously it popped up at this one place I sometimes order from. And the fomo hit… b/c that‘s across borders I had to add something else to the order:
Burgle Bros 2: I blame both Tom and Spacebiff for this one because I have played the app for #1 a few times and both said it was an improvement on that. Plus coop and R being a fan of heist movies especially those involving casinos.
Luna Capital: I preordered this from the SPIEL hype list because Devir seemed to have some great games. Just a day before arrival I saw the Spacebiff review which mostly trashes it which I then didn‘t quite read so as to figure out if I like it. I have already assembled the pieces of the insert and I now have my very own cardboard Bezos-rocket
Menara: when ordering Condottiere I saw that the expansion for this awesome stacking game was only 14€ and could not resist. Best of all: the whole game fits into the smaller expansion box easily and it included the „Golden Columns“ promo yay!
Root Clockwork & Underworld & Vagabonds & Exiles: I preordered this sometime last March? It‘s the very much delayed German edition because due to reasons I have the German base game.
Five Tribes is here b/c of the 2 expansions „Whims of the Sultan“ and „Artisans of Naqala“ which somehow managed to sneak into my order for Tournament up there… I now have an almost complete Five Tribes. Missing just 1 minor expansion and 1 promo card Now all I have to do is play my copy! Oh and for this I blame fomo. The basegame was out of print for so long that I had no power to resist getting „the rest of it“
I’ve just got home to a gutted wife. For Christmas she had found someone in the US to make a hand crafted Crokinole board. Originally the cost of the board and shipping was going to be similar to buying a new board here.
However, the guy has been in touch today to say he’d miscalculated the shipping and it would cost £450! He’s being cool and not making her buy it, but they’re both gutted.
That sounds crazy to me, you could buy a plane ticket and carry it for less than that. I don’t suppose anyone has experience of shipping large wooden boards from the US to the UK and know of a more economical shipping method?
(using PirateShip.com for the rate, shipping from my home address in Kansas)
EDIT: It bumps up a bit more ($192.39 as the lowest option) if I enter 36x36x6". So it depends on how much packaging is involved. That also only includes $100 of insurance, not sure what the value of the product is and how much it would cost to add additional insurance.
I just pulled the trigger on one of my grail games. THE grail game, really. I will post pics as soon as it arrives, but if it is as described, I am now the proud owner of an UNPUNCHED copy of SPI’s The Campaign For North Africa 1940-1943. The “big one.” The “big CRAZY one.”
I rationalize it as an early Christmas present to myself.
I feel like I should be playing Fields of Arle more—I only got the expansion earlier this year but haven‘t played it yet. The box has become even more daunting with the additional materials. Obviously also not playing enough Parks.
yay!
