For my collection the ABC is boring. 6 missing letters, 5 letters with single entries of the remaining 15, 10 have obvious winners.
My original thread idea was which letter is the hardest choice and similar but not quite different was which would be the best collection set. For me I is a tough one. Indonesia, Iki, Innovation and Iron Forest is a strong set but also choosing between Indonesia and the rest is straight forward. It’s Indonesia.
The toughest letter I had to pick one is T. Teotihuacan, Tigris &Euphrates, Trains, Tindahan and Trick of the Rails and I wouldn’t know how to choose between them. Really like them all. I also have Tidal Blades and Tokyo Metro which would make it a contender for a strong set even if they won’t make top spot.
My best set would be C. Cthulhu Wars is an easy winner. Maybe greatest game I own. Beyond that it doesn’t hit my top games but it would be a rounded collection. Chicago Express, Celestia, Clans of Caledonia, Colonists, City of Spies, The Climbers and The City would allow me to play all sorts of games depending on audience, mood and allotted time.
P is also rounded, Paris Connection, Prussian Rails, Piepmatz, PitchCar and Primal the Awakening is varied enough, C is just better though
G could be the tightest grouping. La Granja, The Great Zimbabwe and Glory To Rome is all killer no filler. F also in this category as Food Chain Magnate and First Class are both killers but maybe 2 is less impressive than 3 in this context. You could reverse that for the finals of an olympic event.
As others have said, some REALLY unfortunate match-ups. Xavier Georges in particular has named his games all wrong so that they are pit against some top seeds, while other middling games skate in.
There’s two approaches - either making a “well rounded” collection and choosing based on what already got in on other letters, or just choosing a favorite for each letter. I went the latter route.
Agricola (not Air, Land, & Sea)
Brass
Cyclades (not Carson City or Carnegie!)
Dune: Imperium
El Grande
Formosa Tea (or maybe Fields of Arle, haven’t decided)
Ginkgopolis (Georges - edging out Grand Austria and GwT)
Hansa Teutonica
Isle of Skye (sorry, Iki)
Jaipur
Keyflower (over Kanban)
La Granja
Mission: Red Planet (almost Mysterium)
New Frontiers (sadly losing Neom and Nations)
Oceans (freebie over Orleans)
Pipeline (honorable mention to Pan Am which I haven’t played but seems actually really promising)
Quacks of Quedlinburg (wherein every collection will have either Quacks or Quest)
Race for the Galaxy (surprisingly uncontested, maybe Ra)
Splendor Duel (bye bye Star Realms, with dozens of S’s another surprisingly scant field)
Tichu (Should be Tigris & Euphrates, but here I gave Y to Y&Y and veered Tichu here. It ain’t right, it’s just what happened)
Undaunted
Vale of Eternity
The Wolves
X-Wing Miniatures
Yellow & Yangtze
The Great Zimbabwe
Wow. Got every letter. I don’t feel that Wolves or Zimbabwe are stretches.
If I had to pick a collection all from the same letter… it might be C
Caper Europe
Camel Up
Cascadia
Calico
Carcassonne
Casinopolis
Cat in the Box
Can’t Stop
Castles of Mad Kinf Ludwig
Chez Geek
Clank!
Caverna for 2
Cockroach Series
Codenames
Concept
Concordia
Condottiere
Cosmic Encounter
Cosmic Frog
Crash Octopus
The Crew
Cryptid
Cuba Libre
Cubitos
Cyclades
My other letters with lots of games like S and T have big hits but more duds. F is making a strong showing as well with Factory Funner, Fairy Tales, Faiyum, Fast Sloths, Fake Artist, A Feast for Odin, Fields of Arle, Firefly, Fishing, Five Tribes, Flatiron, Flick of Faith, Floriferous, Flügelschlag (sorry that one got filed in German for reasons, it is Wingspan), Flourish, Food Chain Island, Food Chain Magnate, For Northwood, (Forest Shuffle), Forks. Formosa Tea, Frosthaven, Fugitive and Furnace. Also every year I can just add new 2F games and get an all green shelf as a bonus
# (1): 7 Wonders
A (4): Arkham Horror: The Card Game
B (1): Battlestar Galactica
C (6): Codenames
D (3): Descent: Journeys in the Dark
E (2): Earthborne Rangers
F (0)
G (2): Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion
H (1): Hive
I (1): Istanbul
J (1): Jaipur
K (0)
L (1): Lords of Waterdeep
M (2): Marvel Champions: The Card Game
N (1): Neuroshima Hex
O (1): One Deck Dungeon
P (7): Pandemic
Q (0)
R (4): Railroad Ink
S (6): Spirit Island
T (2): Through the Ages
U (0)
V (0)
W (1): Warhammer Quest: The Adventure Card Game
X (0)
Y(0)
Z (0)
Missing F, K, Q, U, V, X, Y and Z.
P is technically my most popular letter, but the Pandemic series is doing a lot of work there, so I’d say it’s really C or S.
The hardest choices were G (Gloomhaven JotL vs Galaxy Trucker) and R (Railroad Ink vs Race for the Galaxy).
7 Wonders (2/2)
Arkham Horror: the Card Game (10/4)
Betrayal at House on the Hill 2nd edition (16/9)
Concordia (24/17)
Dungeon Petz (18/8)
Everdell (11/6)
Fury of Dracula 3rd/4th edition (16/10)
A Gest of Robin Hood (15/11)
Heat: Pedal to the Metal (10/6)
Inis (3/3)
Jaipur (2/1)
Kingdomino (10/5)
Lords of Vegas (16/13)
Marvel Champions (25/18)
Nemesis (6/4)
Orleans (3/2)
Patchwork (8/5)
Quacks of Quedlinburg (3/3)
Ra (13/9)
Spirit Island (40/25)
Troyes (23/17)
Unmatched: Little Red Riding Hood vs. Beowulf (22/20)
Vampire the Masquerade: Vendetta (4/2)
The Wolves (7/4)
X - haven’t played nor own an X titled game
Yokai Septet (1/1)
Zoo Vadis (1/1)
This is going by BGG titling, so while I have Pandemic versions of Fall of Rome and Reign of Cthulhu, I treated them as F and R, respectively. Also, some games I have multiple versions of, which skews the numbers a bit here and there. And while I felt I should have put Unmatched as a game system as a whole rather than a single entry, I figured I just wanted to stick with how BGG is listing everything. So most of my U numbers are just Unmatched sets.
No J, U, X, Y or Z games to consider; I could have included Zombicide but I have the Night of the Living Dead version so it would come under N.
A few tough choices though, especially among the C, F, M, P and S titles, and among the omitted were:
The Castles of Burgundy, Clans of Caledonia, Codenames, Cyclades
Firefly, Five Leagues from the Borderlands, Five Parsecs from Home, Flash Point: Fire Rescue, Fortune and Glory
Maracaibo, Marvel Heroes, Monikers
Pandemic (base game), Pitch Car, Point City
Scotland Yard (Sherlock Holmes version), Star Realms, Survive: Escape from Atlantis
Other observations were no space themed games (other than Doctor Who, partially) but quite a few horror titles. Sad to leave off Architects of the West Kingdom, Imperium:Classics, Le Harve and New Frontiers as well.
Showed this to my partner and he laughed: “So it’s not like your dislike for Bands with C?”
This came about when I heard Cannibal Corpse at a metal festival for the first (and last) time shortly after followed by Carnal Forge. I had no idea how to even process the noise (Still don’t).
0 12 Days A Android: Netrunner B Between Two Castles of Mad King Ludwig C Carnival of Monsters D Dieson Crusoe E Ex Libris F Finca G Great Western Trail H Hadrian’s Wall I Isle of Cats, The J Just One K KeyForge L Love Letter: Archer Once You Go Blackmail M Myrmes N Nine-Minute Kingdom O Orchard: A 9 card solitaire game P Pyramid Poker Q Queendomino R Radlands S Splendor T Terraforming Mars U Undaunted 2200: Callisto V Valletta W Wingspan X X-Wing Minatures: The Force Awakens (by default - haven’t played it yet) Z Zombie Dice
Missing letter: Y
Most difficult: B Black Angel, Bunny Kingdom, Battlestar Galactica: The Board Game, The Bloody Inn C Calico, Concordia, The Castles of Burgundy, Crave W Werewords
