I know we have had this discussion in previous years in one or more variants but we haven’t had it in this format and the last of these has been a while. Also I am changing the premise a little bit to pose a fresh challenge.
So the basic story is as usual: you are going to a place where you cannot take a lot with you. And you cannot get any new games there. But there are a number of people there who are willing to play games with you, but they do not own any games.
You get to take a single Umzugskiste (32x32x64cm aka a German moving box) worth of games with you. Which games do you pack into the box?
Btw: a typical square box like Kingdombuilder is 30x30x7ish cm.
Bonus question: Do you remember what you would have taken 5 years ago? 10 years ago? 15 years ago?
My usual answer is games with lots of flexibility. I don’t have the measurements to hand but right now I’d try to squeeze in Xia, Flash Point and Ashes, a couple of hard-wearing decks of cards (probably something like Rage for extra flexibility), then fill in the space with small stuff like Sea Salt & Paper.
Obviously it doesn’t have to be exact. I just thought it would be interesting to see what happened if the limit was not number of games but volume
PS: @lalunaverde if you decide to dump Cthulu Wars into the Umzugskiste, I want to see a photo You can simulate Umzugskiste by just taking the box from Gloomhaven or Frosthaven, that’s about the right size.
Because we moved a few years ago we still have some of them–obviously.
The measurements are slightly different for this one. But just so you can see what I am talking about.
Having the actual box made this an easy experiment… by going through my shelves. It helped the games that were easily found. Another day this list might be very different. It seems there is space for 10 normal sized standard boxes and space for at least 20 small games.
As can be seen there is still plenty of space for some unboxed cardgames like Mistborn etc.
List of games in the bottom layer:
Spirit Island (represented by the Jagged Island box - I believe I could get everything up to Jagged island somehow in one square box)
Daybreak
Dune Imp: lots of expansions in the box. Possible I’d pick the newer iteration
Obsession: all the expansions in the box → see lid lift
Innovation Ultimate
Nusfjord: original box, all the decks inside
Tash Kalar: all the extra decks in the box, could probably pack in half the OG box size
The Great Zimbabwe: haven’t played but from what I can tell Splotters have high replay value and the desert island scenario would finally get this to the table I am sure
Cascadia: picked this over Harmonies. includes expansion. The replay value remains great after many many games
The Crew: deep in the sides. Contains both Crew 1 and Crew 2
Radlands: head to head game I’ve been meaning to play more
Tetrarchia: fits between Cascadia and Nusfjord somehow, because such a flat box. This one is what cost the Pandemic iteration in favor of TGZ
Just One: sits quite tight but I need the best party game
Top Layer:
Terraforming Mars: luckily there is space here, because I cannot under any circumstances put this box on the side it’s almost completely packed with all the expansions except some pieces for the solo mode.
The small games were mostly picked on a whim or not
Various Button Shy or rather my 2 favorites: Naturopolis and Sprawlopolis
Sea Salt and Paper
Cockroach Poker
Compile (have yet to play but it finally arrived)
Trailblazers !!! So good.
6 nimmt
Hey that’s my fish (somewhere in there)
One Piece Nakama (I am going to an island after all, there might be pirates)
Games that were under consideration but didn’t make it:
Pandemic (Iberia iteration) → it’s stil in the top layer image but was replaced by TGZ
Imperium:Foo → could replace Obsession. I need to consider this.
Star Wars Outer Rim → Space adventure… but there is no… space.
Oranienburger Kanal → Nusfjord is just more cozy.
Codenames might be better than Just One. But my people love Just One so much more
Beyond the Sun: I had hoped there might be space for it on the side but it’s a stupid box format. And i doubt it has the replay value for the desert island even with this big a selection.
Revive: still loving this. Could replace … Daybreak maybe?
Clank! Catacombs: I like Clank! but it just doesn’t make the cut. Not even above games like Innovation or TGZ that I have barely played
Bonus Question
Terra Mystica would have been my very first choice up until 2017 when I got Spirit Island
Ghost Stories would have been in there for many years. Probably also until SI showed up
Yinsh probably got replaced by Tash Kalar.
Pandemic: our goto game for a long time. Didn’t get replaced per se
Arkham Horror was a long time favorite until my gaming group changed
Carcassonne probably got replaced by Cascadia, I can’t quite tell. It fell out of regular rotation long before that but would probably have made it to the island for many years after that
Magic The Gathering: I just stopped playing. But for many years I would not go anywhere without a deck or two. These days that same itch is scratched by various deck builders or card combo games. The huge variability of games like SI or Terraforming Mars gives me some of that feeling.
I started with modern board gaming 8 years ago! Assuming you can always fit some fillers too.
So, 8 years ago: this would be Dead of Winter, Netrunner, and Ashes as those are the only games I’ve been playing at that time.
5 years ago: Inis, Tigris & Euphrates, and Chicago Express I think. With all the Chudyks I have and RFTG. I don’t know what else. I don’t know exactly what my rankings would be 5 years ago.
Today - using 64cm as the width.
1830 - 5.3 cm
The Estates - 7.0 cm
Chicago Express - 4.4 cm
The Great Zimbabwe - 5.3 cm
Indonesia - 5.1 cm
Innovation Ultimate - 8 cm
Zoo Vadis - 6.5 cm
Stephenson’s Rocket - 7 cm
Container (magical edition from Allplay that doesn’t exist yet) - 7 cm
Guards of Atlantis - custom box I don’t know how tall but the boxes are compact.
That’s less than 64 cm if you stack these. That gives me space to put small games since not all of these have 32 cm x 32 cm height/length
I can then put these:
Pax Renaissance inside The King is Dead 2e box, it’s now permanent residence
Hot Streak
Monikers boxes
other small box Chudyks including another copy of Innovation
Bohnanza
Goodcritters
Intrigue
Avalon
Coup
Battle Line
Compile (both of them)
Kuhhandel
Senators
I’ll keep adding fillers if there’s more space but I think I’m fine with this
