I really wanted to like Nations. I played it once (or maybe twice?)
It was fairly uneven and I never felt like I was making big decisions, just a handful of small decisions; and that would have been okay, I suppose, if I was making lots of small decisions.
Strangely, I prefer Nations: The Dice Game to it’s older sibling. I feel like it’s a better time/complexity fit for the systems.
Ha, yeah, I think we discussed this once before. Responding for posterity…
My first round of Nations was plain awful. I wasn’t sure what the game even was. But something tugged at me (I think that thought of, It’s so bad I must be missing something.)
Thankfully it has a good solo mode, so over the next three or so games I found the beating heart(s). One is the worker movement - you have to pay to place workers, but they cough up goods all game as long as they stay put. As soon as you overbuild with a new card, all your workers come home and do nothing until you can pay to deploy again. The result is a meaty puzzle in what you buy, where you overbuild, and where you put each worker as you need them to STAY there for several thousand years of game-time. So heart 1 is worker flow, which gets really complex as you take hold of the game.
But beyond that, the real game is growth. Grow, grow, grow (meaning adding workers to your pool). And growth is expensive. The real victory is how the game sets up this growth: The cards are dealt, then before anything else, the game asks, do you want to grow? The bill doesn’t come due until the END of the round. The result is this push-your-luck dynamic, over and over, just begging (demanding) you to bite off more than you can chew.
AFTER you decide, THEN you reveal the event for the round. Then you see those cards you NEEDED disappear to other players, and you are scrambling to patch together some semblance of a civilization before war and famine hit and your heritage goes up in flames. It’s this push-your-luck, reveal, plan, disrupt, scramble cycle that makes each round feel like wrestling a bear.
I discovered I loved the bear wrestling, because it triggers with such consistency. And because usually you find a way to get that bear to the ground, which is super satisfying.
Edit 1: But the box is disgustingly oversized - I have it in Concordia Salsa (half the size with room to spare). Sorry Marie Curie.
Edit 2: I really appreciated that Nations was really a comprehensive history of the world, as set against Through The Ages.
I saw it back when it came out and was interested but my partner was with me that day at SPIEL and he literally ran the other direction upon seeing it on the table. By the time, I began buying things despite such reactions it was out of print.
I had Nations until about 6 weeks ago. Fun game, but just didn’t get played enough due to evolving tastes and interests more than any issue with it.
Have this, back when I thought G>G had more than the one trick up their sleeve (well, and publishing Spirit Island). But at least it’s functional, unlike Galactic Strike Force. Probably won’t soon, though. Just no real interest in playing it again, or indeed one vs many games in general.
And this w/ Horned Rat. Cthulhu Wars is in the same general vein, yes, but IMO CitOW is still significantly better and takes up way less space. When it was in print, was way cheaper, too. Actually probably still is, even at the inflated prices it goes for nowadays.
My entries into this thread would pretty much fall into two categories:
-the 5 MB Gamemasters (from most common to least: A&A, Fortress America, Shogun, Conquest of the Empire, Broadsides & Boarding parties)
-A number of 3M Bookshelf Games (Twixt, Breakthru, High Bid, Feudal, Ploy, Stocks & Bonds, and everyone’s favorite, Point of Law)
-Star Trek: The Adventure Game
-Conflict Games’ Imperium, a Traveller board game from 1966
-Conspiracy
-and who could forget Wheel of Fortune: the Board Game (“Featuring: an Authentic Replica of The Wheel”) XD
(*“really old” being defined as “older than Max Gland”)
-All of Tanto Cuore
-Most of Heart of Crown
-Cowboy Bebop: Boardgame Boogie
-Sword of Fellows: the SAO dice game
-Robotech: Attack on the SDF-1 and Ace Pilot
-Kemomimi Panic! (I’m sure loads of people have this, how could anyone survive without a cat-girl themed Resistance clone?)
-Love Formula
I do have a few qualifiers besides that, namely:
Twilight Imperium Second Edition
A follow up in FFG’s Hex-Play™ series, Thunder’s Edge. There was supposed to be a whole array of these, but TI was the only long-term survivor.
Everything ever for FlickFleet. Unlike with most of these, I have at least played it once!
Antarctica, an “Ice-cold” classic (?) that I quite like but can’t get anyone to play more than once 
Entdecker, a sort of OCD* take on Carcassonne made by Klaus Teuber. (*It’s on a board, so you don’t have those weird edges and holes)
In terms of overlap with other’s lists, I only saw a couple; like @yashima I do have Obscurio, and yes it is quite difficult, and like @lalunaverde, I have The Shores of Tripoli, because I also was a playtester 
(Gabriel Hansberry, right in the middle of the full page of names)
Aha! I have Flick Fleet
I have the old A&A and Fortress America games.
Have it 
Have Click Clack Lumberjack if that counts?
Have this and the expansion.
Have this.
Looked at this and March of the Ants so many times, I’m an entomologist and did my BSc dissertation on ant colony migration so the theme is a massive draw for me!
I think these smaller games are probably the ones I’ve a chance of nobody else having.
Burke’s Gambit
Coin Age
Silk
Mijnlieff
Mundus Novus
The Shipwreck Arcana (although it’s leaving this week)
Fungi
Nope, I’ve got this.
I have this.
Actually, I think the version I have is also Click Clack Lumberjack.
Edit:
I have this one
I used to look for this. But I think it was never published anywhere near me and I gave up on it—didn‘t want it enough to go hunting. Why is it leaving?
I have Morels.
Which, by the way, is back in Kickstarter with it’s expansion and custom upgraded components for its 10th anniversary.
I enjoy the game but I just don’t have anybody interested in playing it. I’ve held onto it for too long without it getting a play so thought it should move on for someone else to enjoy.
Amazing! Thanks so much for the heads up on the Kickstarter. Backed it for the upgraded components initially as there’s only a limited number of them.
I can order the expansion but I can’t buy the base Morels game in the UK as it’s licensed as Fungi. Will probably get the expansion anyway and worry about getting base Morels later.
Any experience with his other game Agility that’s on the Kickstarter? Fungi is my partner’s favourite game and she’d love the theme!
I’d never heard of Agility before stumbling across this Kickstarter
I own and very much enjoy that one.