My FLGS had one of those Ogre boxes in store following the launch, and the first time I saw it my brain needed a few seconds to recalibrate. I knew of the game, and that it was huge; but seeing it in person, the size of that box genuinely didn’t make sense to me. I am sure that some backers would have immediately regretted their decision when that monster arrived on their doorstep.
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Because my goal for 2021 is to buy fewer games, I just made a purchase now!
The new big box of Hansa Teutonica, Imperial Assault: The Bespin Gambit, and a couple of IA figure packs to get up to free shipping. Considering these were two things I was planning on picking up anyway when I could, since the opportunity presented itself, I went for it.
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I just know that feeling… must resist… 
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It took maybe around 3 hours yesterday to get everything from the original game plus all the new stuff sorted into the fancy trays in my new giant Anachrony box. Then it took us another hour or so (would have been less but the dog insisted on a walk in the middle) to get a game with a new expansion setup and to refresh ourselves on the old rules plus read the rules for the new expansion.
After all that, it was late enough we thought if we started actually playing we wouldn’t be able to finish before bed so we just left it out, setup an ready to go. Hopefully we’ll actually play today! It does look nice vomited all over the table (and then some). Not sure how we’ll manage a third or fourth player once this pandemic ends.
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That looks awesome 
I received my final addition to the collection for 2020 today and completed my first ever trade from BGG: instead of Takenoko I am now the proud owner of an unpunched 2019 version of Orleans. This is not from the math trade but a random offer someone made from my trade lists…
PS: should have posted this to the “trade” thread, as this is not “bought” …
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Orleans was one of my retail therapy purchases this year, that I really want to get to the table. Other than a solo setup to make sure I had the rules down, it has been sitting in its box, unloved. 
Which is a shame, as I really like what I played, and am curious about the different community board in Trade & Intrigue, but can’t justify buying an expansion for a game I have not played.
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Not really bought today, but my War of Whispers KS arrived today.
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Time for a little last minute housekeeping on stuff coming in during 2020, in preparation for the year of 2021, a year marked by drastically reduced additions (unless more retail therapy is required? (!?)).
I usually stop buying things for myself about mid-November, so that gifts I receive seem all the more exciting and I don’t find myself receiving a duplicate item as a gift as something I bought from my wishlist.
As a result, I feel a tad guilty when I do get things for myself in December, so imagine my near-embarrassed reaction when December 23 marked the arrival of three different pre-order shipments.
OGS #1:
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Unmatched: Cobble & Fog –
Really looking forward to this one. I still haven’t gotten Unmatched of any other variety played, but I do anticipate all of it being excellent; perhaps not with my partner but definitely with two different friends whom I believe will really enjoy it, should we ever have the chance to gather in the same room again.
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My Little Scythe: Pie in the Skye –
My Little Scythe is just the perfect amount of Scythe for me; I’ve seen gameplay of its bigger, older brother several times and I just don’t think it’s for me. However, the
PonyCute Animal edition aimed at younger audiences is still great for adults; though I still am excited for when my kids are a bit older, so they can try it as well. Pie in the Sky satisfyingly fleshes out the remainder of the GameTrayzzzzzzzz-style insert in the base game and adds orange as a player color (which is obviously best). Also eager to try out the airship to see what it does to the already-excellent family-weight game. -
Hansa Teutonica: Big Box –
This is the beast holding up the other two. Hansa Teutonica was a name that was already a “classic” when I got into the hobby several years ago, but much like many classics, it was always spoken of in the past tense and never as a contemporary design. Much of that seems to have changed over the last year (probably in anticipation of the Big Box?), so a little study of it revealed a solid classic euro game (“classic euro”, to me, meaning a game that does 1 thing and does it extremely well and smoothly). Also: all “big” boxes should be this size. It’s even smaller than the Istanbul Big Box, which I thought was a paragon of “big box” prior to receiving this over-due collection gem hopeful.
OGS #2
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Guilds of London: Wards of London –
“Don’t buy expansions for games you haven’t played” – yeah… mea culpa. It was a deal of the day though!
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Big Trouble in Little China: The Game – Legacy of Lo Pan –
“Don’t buy expansions for game s you haven’t played” – yeah… ahem… let’s move on (it was practically free because the base game is alarmingly scarce)
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Power Grid expansions: Benelux/Central Europe, China/Korea, Australia & Indian Subcontinent –
Ah, ahah! I have played Power Grid and we definitely need some more variety in our maps. Unfortunately, these are all “recharged” edition maps… which I don’t think I quite realized at the time. Oh well, maybe I can figure out how to play them with our non-recharged edition base game.
Direct from Publisher (a.k.a. I gave EGG too much money)
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Rococo: Deluxe –
I was originally planning on picking this up as a discounted add-on on the Mercado de Lisboa pledge manager, but I kinda wanted it sooner, so I went to EGG’s website and found they had a bunch of discounts on their deluxe edition games… so…
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The Gallerist –
Lacerda… may be something I enjoy? So I dipped my toe in…
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Vinhos –
A few toes in…
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Lisboa –
A whole dang foot, okay?
I don’t expect to keep all 3 of the Lacerda designs… maybe I will, maybe I won’t. I think Lisboa’s reputation sets it as having my highest expectations. Vinhos is likely the short-timer and Gallerist may follow it? Time will tell. Best of all, all 3 are soloable!
Christmas
I told my partner that I didn’t need any games for Christmas, so she bought me exactly 0. However, when asked for gift ideas by people shopping for me, she mentioned a few games I had pointed out at our FLGS.
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Grand Austria Hotel –
I was extremely interested in the recent Grand Austria Hotel expansion Kickstarter, but having never played the game, I felt it wasn’t a good option for me. So… I put GAH at the top of my wishlist and was pleased to get a copy waiting under our tree (my partner and I played the role of Santa’s Reindeer during the week preceding Christmas, driving around town, dropping off wrapped gifts for various household of her family, picking up their gifts and delivering them to the various houses… so we all had each others’ gifts waiting for us come Christmas day, so that we could arrange video calls to do gift openings)
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Plunder: A Pirate’s Life –
I know 0 things about this other than it’s title. My mom sent it direct via Amazon. It wasn’t on my wishlist (which I strongly encourage people buy things they think I might like even if it’s not on my list!). Unfortunately, it appears to have a roll&move… which… I dunno. I haven’t opened it yet… Time will tell what happens to it.
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Friends Wheel of Mayhem –
I’ve previously posted about some games I bought to give my partner for Christmas (Mysterium Park, Ticket to Ride: Amsterdam, Fort, Horrified), but this one I completely forgot to mention, despite it waiting under the tree for her just like the others. This game is bad. Bad, and very bad. Still, it’s more enjoyable than a straight-up Friends Trivia game (which I also bought her, but haven’t bothered to remember the name of or see if it’s listed on BGG). We’ve already played this once… it’s… not well made and probably wasn’t play tested very much. Still, we got a few laughs from it and both got to flex our Friends trivia knowledge (a show I had never watched before dating my partner who convinced me to watch); Friends being one of the two or three shows my partner puts on in the bedroom to fall asleep to (which keeps me up, so I’ve watched every episode likely a dozen times.
Following Christmas
The day after Christmas brought the mailman back around with something I honestly didn’t expect to arrive before 2021!
- War of Whispers w/expansions –
I’ve never played this, but did have the chance to spectate a game played by some of the members of this forum. Definitely not a type of game I’ll be good at, but certainly the type of game that will keep me smiling all the way through. This type of game is the kind of game I can only win at accidentally, as my brain doesn’t think in the requisite way to make forward planning a real option. Glad to have it and extremely surprised to see it arrive on-time (Dec 2020 being the ETA, somehow nailing it in the year every one else complained "COVID-19! COVID-19 is the reason we’re late)
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Bought Renature and Fields of Arle + Tea & Trade
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Oh REEEAAALLLY (runs to the website)
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Probably not as much of a deal shipping to the UK; EGG ships from a warehouse that’s less than 300 miles (a.k.a. “right down the road” in Midwestern-ese ) from me.
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Lovely picture. Really gives a sense of the scale you’re dealing with. Is that the table you play on? Will it ever fit?
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That is the table we play on at home. I think with a little better organization of the pieces trays and boards we could get everything for a 2-player game on the table. Any player count over that and individual player setups will most likely have to be on a side tray table. Everything on the tray table in the bottom left corner of the picture was my husband’s player boards and pieces for the game we played.
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Yup, I reckon the box size is about perfect. You can fit all of the same content into the original box (I do so myself), but it’s a pretty tight fit, so you can’t just “chuck things back in the box” when you’re done (not to say that it’s arduous either, but it just takes a bit of extra care to pack it away). IIRC the “big box” is the same length and width, but 2cm taller to make everything that little bit easier (and/or very possibly to provide space for further expansions, which I wouldn’t be surprised to see down the track, given how enthusiastically this reprint has been received!)
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The Banishing, looked like a decent co-op, and my group loves co-ops.
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Pre-ordered the 2nd printing of Imperial Struggle from GMT Games’s P500. Wasn’t pleased from what I read about the errata from the 1st print, so I’m happy to wait for some months.
I’m already expecting this to be nothing like Twilight Struggle which is good as I might be able to keep both, or maybe not.
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It’s been a while, but I just returned yesterday from a long weekend camping (as Monday was bank holiday). On the way back home, I got to pick up a second hand copy of Android that I had bought on TradeMe before the New Year. Something for me to go through tonight (rubs hands)
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Cat Lady extension 8)
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This actually makes me relieved I never bought Anachrony in the first place, because I’d probably have wanted to get all the expansion content, and then I’d be stuck with this enormous box of stuff that I’d hardly ever play because it’s too much stuff to take out, set out, and put away.
But I do hope you enjoy it! I know it’s a great game.
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Joined a 2021 Challenge to stop buying board games, so the last games I bought were pre-orders for The Search For Planet X and Merv: Heart Of The Silk Road.
Over the holiday season, games I got from Secret Santas:
- Unlock! Heroic Adventures
- SHCD: Carlton House & Queen’s Park (blue box)
- Mysterium Park
- Rap Godz
- Chronicles Of Crime 1400
- Beyond The Sun
And I bought for myself:
- Paris Deluxe
- Hues and Cues
- Lost Ruins Of Arnak
- Bus 20th Anniversary Edition
- Paiko
- Alice Is Missing
And I got in trade:
- Biblios
- On Tour
And KS games that delivered:
- Rococo Deluxe
- Fleet The Dice Game
So now, the problem is getting rid of games to make room! I might have sold one game, and looking to trade some others? But I really don’t want more games back — I’d prefer to sell or give them away! Constant struggle to keep the collection as low as possible!
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