These are both buried in the back room of BGA. I’ve been eyeing them as both really bad games high up on the popularity list, and good games low down on the popularity list, tend to catch my eye. Pip (SUSD) also raves about Coloretto. Let me know if you want to show me the ropes!
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Port increases rules weight for not much gain. They say it “fixes” travelling, but not really convinced about that (unless I play Village more).
Goals first? Sure. If they remember that they have goal cards sitting face down in front of them. THat’s an okay alternative to Inn and Brewery, which you don’t have to pay attention to on someone’s first game.
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[Editor’s note: As expected, this topic tangents into “why I buy” and “I need to sell” but that’s all cool. Also interesting topics.]
I’m hearing a couple of archetypes: There’s the 20-50 crowd, the 60-100 crowd, and the 150-200 crowd. Something of a tri-modal distribution. (Not counting the “if you have the space and money and it’s making you happy then you’re good” angle). At the same time, we seem to mostly agree that the 150-200 is hard to actually play - I’m curious what it is that pushes some of us up there. While I still believe that a collection only needs to be ~80 strong, I’m currently at 258, barring a handful of administrative transfers to the sell pile. That’s about 3x. If I lump my games into sets of three, I can usually say, eeeeehhhhhhhh I could let that one go if I had to. But I don’t think I could let 2 of 3 go.
That gets me to the 150-200 bracket, which is how many I want to have but not how many I can play.
There’s a librarian in me. Nothing gives me more delight than having that perfect book, movie, beer, or game to pull off the shelf. Oh, you studied central Asian history in college? Have you heard of Pax Pamir? Oh, we’ve got a Moana fan, let me show you this game… I delight in not just having “a” game that will work, but “the perfect” game, so I make room for extra things that are both good and unique, even if I know there’s something similar that I personally like better.
Maybe? I’m fumbling toward inner epiphany here.
Pivot.
If you want to duplicate @Whistle_Pig’s exercise, here are my 12 buckets:
- Duel, light
- Duel, involved
- Duel, epic
- Quickteach
- Light
- Medium
- Heavy
- Epic
- Skirmish
- Scenario / Campaign / Co-op
- Social, 2-6 players
- Social, 6-10 players
The game is to put five in each bucket. But also, buckets are a bit fungible. You likely don’t need 5 Epic length 2 player games. 2-3 will do it, which gives you some breathing room if you need more in a different category. Quickteach is often similar to light but not necessarily. Games like Agricola and Irish Gauge are easy to teach but heavier to play (Irish Gauge is not light unless you are already a Train-Head). At least with my groups there are often people who are interested in playing but reluctant to learn, so this has become a distinct bucket. Conversely, games like Ethnos or Istanbul are light to play but harder to teach, what with explaining 6 different tribes or 16 different action spaces.
Also, these things aren’t mutually exclusive. If a game fits in two buckets. put it where you have room to leave space in the other one.
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Duel: Light (+1)
- Patchwork
- Air, Land, & Sea
- Jaipur
- Hive
- Star Realms
- Schotten Totten
Duel: Heavy
- Innovation
- Race for the Galaxy
- Lord of the Rings: The Confrontation
- Mottainai
- Anrdoid: Netrunner
Duel: Epic (-2)
- War of the Ring 2e
- Memoir 44
- Fields of Arle
Quickteach
- Quacks of Quedlinburg
- Quest for El Dorado
- Flamme Rouge
- Settlers of Catan
- Ra
Light (-1)
- Tichu
- Isle of Skye
- Libertalia: Winds of Galecrest
- Empyreal
Medium (+3)
- Castles of Burgundy
- Concordia
- Great Western Trail 2e
- Oceans
- Nusfjord (or Lowlands, gah)
- Formosa Tea
- Hansa Teutonica
- Furnace (w/ Interbellum ftw)
Heavy (+2)
- Agricola
- Keyflower
- Troyes
- Tigris & Euphrates
- Nations
- Brass: Birmingham
- Kanban EV
Epic (-2)
- Sidereal Confluence
- Twilight Imperium 4
- Eclipse: Second Dawn
Skirmish (-1)
- Dune: Imperium
- Inis
- El Grande
- Cyclades
Scenario / Co-op / Campaign
- The Crew
- Imperial Assault
- Spirit Island
- Star Wars: Outer Rim
- Sleeping Gods
Social: 2-6 (+1)
- Tournament at Avalon (or Cat in Box or Tindahan. Avalon is more “social.”)
- Chinatown
- Coup
- Anomia
- Silver (Amulet + Bullet + Coin)
- Skull
Social: 6-10 (-1)
- Spyfall
- Eat Poop You Cat (This is pen and paper, maybe I don’t have to count it and Ginkgopolis stays in?)
- Codenames (Haven’t gotten Decrypto to the table yet. One or the other.)
- One Night Ultimate Werewolf
I’m glad no one is going to hold me to this. But it’s also illuminating, some games are such easy exclusions that maybe that tells me something…
(edit: ~25 games were easy exclusions. It’s a start.)
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When you say 20-50 and 60-100, I think you COULD have a respectable collection with just 2 in each bucket (so 24), especially when you’re starting out.
But I personally would go for the 60-100, because… what, am I not going to buy Everdell because I already have that bucket filled? It’s not even as far as having the perfect game for the person in full 100+ library style, it’s just “Oh, and that one, obviously” taking me way past 60 
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Can you still fit into your apartment, house or other “living space”? Then you don’t have enough boardgames.
But seriously, my limit is just “does everything fit?” If so, then I am fine, although I might sell or give away games I am definitely done with (e. g. Artisans of Splendent Vale, where we finished the campaign and there is zero replay value). My criterion for things entering my collection is: do I want to play this? And will I, realistically, ever actually play this? So I own zero party games, zero hidden role games, maybe one or two games that could be described as a filler game (I don’t have people over to play a variety of short games, I have people over to play one satisfying game), and maybe three to five that could be described as lighter than mid weight and only the very most appealing of those. I have more Lacerda games than I probably should (although that’s a collection and theoretically soloable) but I dismiss most dungeon crawling games out of hand and I am very leery of adding random sandbox coops to my pile as I do enjoy them but rarely. I have probably too many two player dueling games as I vastly prefer coop at that player count and only sometimes get to play at it anyway. (Which is why I skipped Sakura Wars and Unmatched, among others, despite them looking cool.) Meanwhile I have probably 30 or more narrative campaign coops, because that genre speaks to me.
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This is exactly the conclusion we eventually came to!
The Inn expansion is fun. The Port is excessively fiddly and doesn’t improve things (for us anyway; other people’s mmv). Except for the goals, which are a nice little addition.
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Most of the time this holds true for us as well. Except for those exceptions of course when we have bigger meetups. Those are rare and I have too many fillers. Luckily, they are mostly small and don’t take up much shelfspace.
More or less. Before the move it wasn’t fitting anymore. It felt not great.
Much better now 
But there is also what I called headspace. And I think my headspace is smaller now than my shelfspace.
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Coloretto would be shocking async!
And I’ve played (and enjoyed) Bohnanza async
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Here’s my attempt (purely of games I’ve played)
A deck of cards (cribbage, 99, Spades)
Innovation - 2 player duel
Race for the Galaxy -2-4 player
Bohnanza anniversary edition - high player count negotiation
Cosmic plus expansions - high player count nonsense
Ticket to Ride - family game
Azul 2-4 player family game+
Quest for El Dorado - race game
Hansa Teutonica - family game++
El Grande - fighty game
Tichu - because it’s perfect. Team game
Tindahan - trick taker
Monikers - party game
Crokinole - dexterity game
The Crew - co op/ campaign
Doodle Dash - drawing game (and you can proxy Just One and Telestrations, sue me!)
Yellow and Yangtze (not played T&E in real life)
Great Western Trail - medium/ heavy long game
Troyes - shorter medium game. Lots of interaction, great 2,3 or 4
Spirit Island - heavy co op
Quartermaster General or Ethnos - 6 player with a bit of weight
Modern Art - best auction game
Doppelt so Clever - best solo game
I think (even with cheating) that’s under 30. Genuinely think I could live with that
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See this is my problem. I like long and involved games but don’t have the time to play them, even on games days/weekends one of my friends would rather not play long games (which is kind of the point of a games weekend …). But I can’t help buying long involved games - both Gloomhaven and Frosthaven sit there fundamentally unplayed. They become too unwieldy to teach, and them coming out is so rare that you have to learn and teach them over again.
And then there is of course, the next thing that looks cool…
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To be honest, I would assume the answer depends on how often you play. If you’re having people over to play several nights a week, I would think you could justify having A LOT of games.
I play one night a week, and most of the time it’s with my wife. We have 32 games and that’s with the expectation that it’ll go down to 30 once we’ve slimmed down the IN tray after a few plays.
What I’ve gradually learned is that there’s not much reason to buy a game to account for that one weird occasion that might happen once every 10 years (“gosh, I’ve 5 people over and they simply MUST play an auction-based wargame with hidden objectives, what is a girl to do?”). Much better to buy a smaller number of games that you’ll play often.
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So I wrote down a tight 24 game collection with some reasons. Don’t know how I’d bucket them and there are some brutal cuts but I think I could be happy for a long time with these. ~6 heavy games and 10 light games I think so good spread on the 3 weights. Plus Cthulhu Wars which has all the things and huge toy factor and is too big for even it’s own bucket.
Spirit Island my favourite co-op
Robo-Rally higher player count, easy to teach and even fun when losing
Guillotine crap game but really accessible to non gamers
Celestia good game accessible to non gamers
Warriors filler with added nostalgia for me
Murano medium euro dry theme Herr Franz art
Paris Connection family weight train game
Indonesia heavy economic perfection
Mottainai duel+++
Hanabi small coop
Food Chain Magnate too good not to be here
Seasons colourful and crunchy mid weight
Keyflower most aggro euro and excellent
Iki all the opportunity costs super medium
La Granja:must have a hard to teach euro
Chicago Express because sometimes you only have an hour to be a ruthless dick head
The Climbers as it has 3D game space and is accessible
6 Nimmt! Card game par excellence
Hanamikoji holiday travel game
Love Letter I laugh every time
18Mex from 1830 family I like the map
1824 first one I loved
1889 first one to blow my mind
Cthulhu Wars nuff said
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Sandy Petersen, creator of Cthulhu Wars, God Wars and other outsize miniatured boardgames, believes players should do what they do in Texas and stick another room on their house if they run out of space for their games and accessories. I disagree with this, and have temporarily stopped buying games to stop my little flat from being over-run.
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I like the idea of twenty games that could keep me (and the family, which is who most of my game playing is with) happy for a long time!
(whether I could even get close to achieving it in real life though…?)
A few that are really just for me, although I might be kept company occasionally:
Archipelago
Agricola
Robinson Crusoe
Sprawlopolis
A bunch of not-too-heavy family games:
Concordia
Carcassonne
Galaxy Trucker
The Downfall of Pompeii
Survive: Escape from Atlantis
Flash Point: Fire Rescue
Some 2-player games:
Jaipur
Codenames (yeah, I know, but we only ever play this two player)
Lord of the Rings: The Confrontation
Games we like but can also play with higher numbers when we have visitors who like to play games:
7 Wonders
Bohnanza
Tsuro
Dixit
Love Letter and Coup - quick fun the whole family enjoys, and nobody minds when they lose
And finally, the game I think could be happy with for a very long time even if it was the only game I had:
Spirit Island
There are quite a few (but, interestingly, not as many as I’d expected) I/we would find it very hard to say goodbye to - eg Village, Targi, Jamaica, but I don’t think we’d ever feel we didn’t have enough games…
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AM I the only one thinking of librarian ladders??
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I think Sandy Peterson needs to understand the cost of developable land in Europe.
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Gosh I remember this photo. I was confused on how do you pull out those games from that
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Luckily, my solution is: have one copy of Cthulhu Wars, rather than having 5 Troops on a Map Kickstarter editions.
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